Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a voting reform bill (Senate Bill 90) into law in a televised event in front of supporters of former President Donald Trump. Senate Bill 90 was passed along partisan lines in the state legislature. DeSantis did not allow Florida reporters to cover the event. Fox News was the only news outlet that was allowed inside.

“We’re not resting on our laurels and me signing this bill here says, ‘Florida your vote counts.’ Your vote is going to be passed with integrity and transparency,” DeSantis told the hosts of the Fox News show “Fox & Friends.”

Democrats condemned this event as partisan. “This morning’s showboat for-FOX News-only bill signing effectively clenched Republicans’ grip on our state’s election system, enacting oppressive measures to restrict voter access and empower partisan poll watchers,” said Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation.

Fox News said that they did not know that it was a bill signing and that “Fox & Friends” had not “requested or mandated the event be exclusive to FOX News Media entities.”

One part of the bill bans a person from possessing more than two mail-in ballots unless one belongs to a family member. Miami-Dade County made this illegal years ago to prevent “ballot harvesting,” which is when candidates or members of a candidate’s campaign go to people’s homes to collect ballots and oftentimes illegally pressure voters on who to vote for. “We’re not going to let political operatives go and get satchels of votes and dump them in some drop box,” DeSantis said.

Under this bill, ballot drop boxes must have at least two people physically there manning them so someone can constantly be present in case one person needs to step away. Video surveillance is not acceptable. Having to have people present at the ballot drop box will limit the amount of time that the ballot drop boxes will be open. Joe Scott, the Broward County supervisor of elections, calls these new rules “terrible.” He says that requiring people to physically watch the election drop boxes will be “a big problem for me in terms of managing the budget of this office” and that “The new law has limitations that are unreasonable and extremely confusing. That confusion in effect will lead to voter suppression. Many voters who don’t understand the rules will decide not to participate at all.”

Now if a person wants a mail-in ballot, they will need to provide a driver’s license number, a state ID number, or the last four digits of the person’s Social Security number. Also, Floridians used to be able to request a ballot for the next two election cycles (every four years). Under the new rules, they will only be allowed to request a ballot for the next election cycle (every two years). However, current requests for ballots would be grandfathered in.

Florida has a history of fraud when it comes to mail-in ballots for local races. In 2001, Republicans got rid of the harvesting ban. In 2012, a statewide grand jury tried to get lawmakers to ban it again, but no action was taken until now.

“All 50 states should ban ballot harvesting, and they should have done it yesterday,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, which is a new conservative-leaning voting group. “That includes Florida.”

Snead and Republicans say that the voting rules in Florida are less restrictive than voting rules in Democrat-led states. For example, in Florida, you do not need an excuse to get a mail-in ballot, but you do in New York.

However, this move has been criticized because it was done after the 2020 elections, when Democrats mailed in more ballots than Republicans for the first time and Republicans like DeSantis even said the mail-in ballots ran smoothly. This is making Democrats suspicious as to why these changes are taking place now.