Florida's legislature on Thursday passed sweeping voting restrictions, including stricter requirements about drop box staffing and requiring voters to apply more frequently for mail-in ballots.
This report produced by Chris Dignam.
A bill passed by Florida's legislature that makes it harder to access drop boxes and mail-in ballots headed to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis for him to sign into law, the latest Republican-led effort to push for what activists say is voter suppression.
Democrats say the sweeping Republican measures are designed to lessen the impact of Black voters, whose heavy turnout helped propel Biden to victory and delivered Democrats two U.S. Senate victories in Georgia in January.
In March, Georgia passed major new voting restrictions, prompting a corporate backlash, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, and led to Major League Baseball pulling this year's All-Star Game from Atlanta.
Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who is suing Georgia over its voting restrictions, suggested in a tweet that businesses should stand up against the Florida bill as well.
Republicans cite former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost to current President Biden, as reasons for the sweeping measures.
DESANTIS ON OCTOBER 6, 2020: "You see, like, I've seen these out of, like, D.C.
They're sending it to these homes... It's just a mass mailing of ballot regardless of whether it's requested... But that is not what's happening in Florida." DeSantis, who said last year that the election in his state was secure and ran smoothly, is expected to sign the sweeping voter restrictions bill into law imminently.
One of the most controversial changes has been those to ballot drop boxes.
