April 27, 2022

Meet the DeStapo

Story here: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/florida-governor-desantis-signs-bill-creating-election-police-unit-.html

The law creates an Office of Election Crimes and Security under the Florida Department of State to review fraud allegations and conduct preliminary investigations. DeSantis is required to appoint a group of special officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who would be tasked with pursuing the election law violations.

Existing state law allowed the governor to appoint officers to investigate violations of election law but did not require him to do so.

The law also increases penalties for the collection of completed ballots by a third party, often referred to as ballot harvesting, to a felony. It raises fines for certain election law violations and requires that election supervisors perform voter list maintenance on a more frequent basis.

DeSantis signed the bill days after the Florida legislature, meeting in a special session called by the governor, passed a congressional redistricting map drawn up by the governor and expected to reduce the number of districts in which Democrats are competitive- especially black candidates supported by black voters.

April 23, 2022

Kevin McCarthy passes the Republican leadership test!