While former President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud tied to the 2020 presidential election have been widely debunked, election crimes still appear to be a buzz-worthy issue.
Just this week, the Florida House of Representatives passed legislation to create an “Office of Election Crimes and Security,” while a lawsuit was filed in Colorado regarding armed, door-to-door searches for voter fraud.
In Florida, 76 out of 117 voted in favor of a bill that: creates the Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State, requires the Secretary of State to notify the Attorney General if signatures required for an initiative petition are no longer valid and establishes other requirements related to voting.
According to CBS News, the law now has to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis before it becomes law.
When established, the office is expected to be a scaled-down version of a previous proposal from the governor. DeSantis called for 52 staffers and a $5.7 million budget, the current version would be staffed by around 25 investigators and officers instead, said CBS.
“This bill simply creates a new Office of Election Crimes and Security with taxpayer dollars that we don’t need to spend,” said Democratic state Representative Fentrice Driskell said. “What bills like this do, it says there’s a problem with our elections system that we’re trying to solve...it perpetuates this concept that they shouldn't be able to trust what happens in government. This is a monster that will eat us alive if we let it.”
“(In) every single county in this state, you will find people who are committing voter fraud if you look for it,” Republican state Representative Blaise Ingoglia argued. “What's not happening is investigating these occurrences.”
Despite objections from Democrats such as Diskell, the legislation passed Wednesday. That same day, the League of Women Voters of Colorado and other civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against US Election Integrity Plan (USEIP) – described by the league as an “election conspiracy group” – for voter intimidation activities in Colorado.
“The lawsuit alleges members of USEIP are leading an organized intimidation campaign, dispatching volunteers — who are sometimes armed — to go door-to-door in diverse communities, interrogating Colorado voters on how they voted,” said the league.
According to the USEIP website, the group was “established with a dozen members from varying political backgrounds,” in order “to get a better understanding of what happened in the 2020 elections, to find the truth, expose the truth, and share the truth.”
Additionally, the group claims to be “non-partisan, independent and 100% focused on election integrity issues,” and not affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against USEIP under both the Voting Rights Act and under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to prevent the group from engaging in voter intimidation activities, said the League of Women Voters. USEIP agents “have asked residents about their participation in the 2020 election, taken photos of voters’ residences, and maintained a database of photos of voters’ residences,” they said.
The Colorado-Montana-Wyoming State Area Conference of the NAACP and Mi Familia Vota, are also plaintiffs in the suit. They are represented by Free Speech for People and Lathrop GPM LLP.
“Voting is essential to our freedoms and way of life in this country,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO. “Any suppression of our constitutional right must be fought against with every tool at our disposal. We cannot allow the course of our nation to be reversed by those looking to gain power through ill-gotten means. Protecting our voting rights is a number one priority.”
Related
Related
