DeSantis’ Vote-Suppression Tactics Are Working in Florida


In May 2021 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 90, which effectively cleared the voter rolls of Florida citizens who had requested mail-in ballots. Previously, Florida voters could file one request for mail-in ballots and would receive one for any and all elections.

No more.

Although a federal judge removed several of the most egregious provisions of the law, it nonetheless is still suppressing mail-in voting, according to the Florida Reporter:

Studies show that voters who are registered to vote by mail are more likely to cast a vote.The impact on voting by mail from this new law is already coming into sharp focus: last year, Miami-Dade County had 438,000 mail ballot voters, but as of July 1st of this year, a mere 92,000 voters were enrolled in vote by mail. In Hillsborough County, only 70,000 voters are signed up to vote by mail as of July 1st, down from 320,000 before the new law went into effect. In Broward County, it’s even more dramatic: a recent review confirmed just 35,000 vote by mail sign-ups, compared to 428,000 last year. In Orange County, only 23,000 voters have requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming cycle after 140,000 voters used them in 2021.

DeSantis Doesn’t Fail to Disappoint

“On television, DeSantis can come across as savvy, reasonably well media-trained, and sometimes aggressive. (His wife, Casey, is a former local news anchor.) But in person, I immediately sensed a very different potential candidate: a guarded politician who had no interest in actually engaging with other humans, and was perhaps even a little scared of the spotlight. He had trouble making eye contact with people in the crowd. After five minutes of unmemorable remarks, we were quickly ushered out of the room ….”

Tara Palmeri

DeSantis Fundraisers — A Million or Nuthin’

$1 million

“It’s going to cost a lot to get Ron DeSantis to show up in person to collect political checks: about $1 million,” NBC News reports. “That’s the aggressive goal set to draw the Florida governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate to travel out of his way for fundraising events, according to three Republicans involved in efforts to raise cash for DeSantis during the shadow primary period.”

Fascism Expert: Ron DeSantis ‘Will Destroy Our Democracy’

“Ron DeSantis will destroy our democracy with deadly precision. I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous he is.”

– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University who has written several books on propaganda, authoritarianism, and dictators such as Benito Mussolini, in a tweet reacting to a Fox News interview with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praising DeSantis.