{"id":2233883,"date":"2024-04-30T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T21:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/voter-registration-groups-slim-down-operations-after-florida-upped-penalties-for-breaking-the-law\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T17:01:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T21:01:47","slug":"voter-registration-groups-slim-down-operations-after-florida-upped-penalties-for-breaking-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/voter-registration-groups-slim-down-operations-after-florida-upped-penalties-for-breaking-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Voter Registration Groups Streamline Operations Following Florida&#8217;s Increased Law Enforcement Penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvoter-registration-groups-slim-down-operations-after-florida-upped-penalties-for-breaking-the-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2233883&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Florida \u2063lawmakers have toughened penalties for third-party organizations violating voter registration laws. The groups\u200b have scaled down operations in response. SB 7050 increased fines for various violations, including late submissions or altering forms. Despite legal challenges, restrictions remain. Fines are limited \u200bto $250,000 yearly. Counties report a sharp decrease in registrations returned \u200csince the law took effect, showing \u200bthe impact on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/megadonors-pour-record-amount-of-money-into-get-out-the-vote-effort-for-dems\/\" title=\"Megadonors Pour Record Amount of Money Into \u2018Get Out the Vote\u2019 Effort for Dems\">voter registration efforts<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<figure>                         <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Florida lawmakers showed their willingness to crack down on third-party organizations who break the law when registering voters \u2014 and in response, the groups have significantly slimmed down their operations in the Sunshine State, according to a report from WUSF. <\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s legislature passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2023\/7050\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SB 7050<\/a> in 2023. The law increased fines on third<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-grants-preliminary-injunction-on-parts-of-newly-passed-florida-election-law\/\" title=\"Federal court issues preliminary injunction on portions of recently enacted Florida election law.\">-party voter registration groups<\/a> who deliver a registration application after the deadline, return incorrectly filled out registration forms, alter a voter\u2019s registration form, or deliver applications to the wrong counties. The law also prohibited third-party groups from pre-filling registration forms and harvesting voters\u2019 data from their registration forms. Additionally, it barred illegal aliens and other foreign citizens from collecting voter registration forms, though that portion of the law was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/149-2024-03-01-Order-Granting-In-dckt-149_080.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">struck down<\/a> in March by an Obama-appointee. <\/p>\n<p>Fines are capped at $250,000 per year. <\/p>\n<p>Since the legislation went into effect, counties have seen a \u201cdramatic reduction\u201d in the number of registrations returned, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusf.org\/politics-issues\/2024-04-29\/florida-voter-registration-new-restrictions-groups-scale-down-operations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WUSF<\/a>. Left-leaning Leon County saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-secretary-of-state-investigating-voter-registration-group-run-by-democrat-raphael-warnock\/\" title=\"Georgia Secretary Of State Investigating Voter Registration Group Run By Democrat Raphael Warnock\">voter registration applications<\/a> go from 10,000 in 2021 and 2022 to just six since last year, according to the report. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe volumes are much lower,\u201d Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley told WUSF. He attributed the drop \u201cmostly\u201d to organizations concluding \u201cit\u2019s just not worth the risk because they can be held personally liable for thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in fines.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Mi Vecino Florida was one of a handful of groups that registered more than 36,000 voters in 2021, according to the local outlet. The group is now just focusing on \u201ceducating voters,\u201d according to their state field director Ver\u00f3nica Herrera-Lucha. <\/p>\n<p>Republican Secretary of State Cord Byrd said the law was necessary to hold accountable some third-party groups that are \u201cfrequent violators,\u201d because \u201cwhen they mess up it disenfranchises a voter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Byrd <a href=\"https:\/\/dos.fl.gov\/communications\/press-releases\/2023\/press-release-florida-department-of-state-holds-third-party-voter-registration-organizations-accountable-for-repeated-violations-of-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fined<\/a> third-party voter registration organization Hard Knocks Strategies $34,400 in 2023 for what the state said were \u201crepeated violations\u201d of the law. The state reviewed 2,868 registration applications collected by the organization that \u201cwere submitted to election officials after the statutory deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf these registrations, at least 116 were collected before \u2014 but not delivered until after \u2014 book closing deadlines, subjecting Florida voters to potential disenfranchisement,\u201d the Department of State found. \u201cHard Knocks Strategies, LLC also repeatedly turned in registrations to the incorrect county supervisors of elections, and in one instance, submitted 21 Florida voter registrations presumed to be from Texas residents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several of Hard Knocks Strategies\u2019 collection agents were also arrested in Charlotte and Lee Counties after they allegedly submitted \u201ca large number of fraudulent\u201d applications between 2021-2022, according to the State Department. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-image data-amount=\"5\">\n<h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida lawmakers passed SB 7050 in 2023, raising fines on third-party voter registration groups. In response, these organizations have scaled back operations in Florida. As reported by WUSF, the state&#8217;s crackdown on law-breaking voter registration groups led to significant operational cutbacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2233884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/50563648493_8789ebe781_k-e1714502043980.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2233883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/50563648493_8789ebe781_k-e1714502043980.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2233883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2233884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}