Ron DeSantis: Florida’s Electoral Process ‘Remains a Blueprint for Other States to Follow’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced a series of election integrity initiatives Friday, framing them as a “blueprint for other states to follow.” The announcement comes as GOP officials nationwide begin to seek election integrity solutions ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

While establishment politicians overwhelmingly seek to resume “business as usual,” the GOP base, which continues to support former President Trump, has not forgotten about the highly contested 2020 presidential election and its election integrity concerns. The GOP is launching a push to fuel election integrity solutions in statehouses across the country, and the RNC is creating an “election transparency committee.” Officials are seeking viable solutions, and DeSantis is the first major player to address this post-election.

DeSantis listed several reforms for the state of Florida, paving the way for other states to follow suit. The reforms include initiatives to ensure ballot integrity, addressing the use of ballot drop boxes, ballot harvesting, and effectively banning mass vote-by-mail — something several states embraced in the 2020 election. Per DeSantis’s proposal, vote-by-mail requests must be made each election year and ballot signatures “must match the most recent signature on file.”

DeSantis also announced efforts to provide transparency in both the election process and in election reporting.

Per the press release:

• Political parties and candidates cannot be shut out from observing the signature matching process.
• Supervisors of Elections must post over-vote ballots to be considered by the canvassing board on their website before the canvassing board meets.
• Prohibits counties from receiving grants from private third-party organizations for “get out the vote” initiatives.
• Requires real-time reporting of voter turnout data at the precinct level.
• Supervisors of Elections must report how many ballots have been requested, how many have been received, and how many are left to be counted.

“Last November, Florida held the smoothest, most successful election of any state in the country,” DeSantis said. “While we should celebrate this feat, we should not rest on our laurels.”

“Today, we are taking action to ensure that Florida remains a leader on key issues regarding our electoral process, such as ballot integrity, public access to election information, transparency of election reporting, and more,” he continued.

“By strengthening these election integrity protections, we will ensure that our elections remain secure and transparent, and that Florida’s electoral process remains a blueprint for other states to follow,” he added.

“We did it right in 2020,” DeSantis said from Palm Beach on Friday.

Watch his full press conference below: