[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                    VOTING IN AMERICA: ACCESS TO THE 
                          BALLOT IN FLORIDA

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS

                           COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
                             ADMINISTRATION
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                              MAY 25, 2022

                               __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
      
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]      

                       Available on the Internet:
         https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-administration
         
                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
49-430                    WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                   COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION

                  ZOE LOFGREN, California, Chairperson

JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland               RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois,
G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina      Ranking Member
PETE AGUILAR, California             BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia
MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania       BRYAN STEIL, Wisconsin
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico

                                 ------                                

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS

              G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina, Chairman

PETE AGUILAR, California             BRYAN STEIL, Wisconsin
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                              MAY 25, 2022

                                                                   Page
                                                                   
Voting in America: Access to the Ballot in Florida...............     1

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

Hon. G. K. Butterfield, Chairman.................................     4
    Prepared statement of Chairman Butterfield...................     4
Hon. Bryan Steil, Ranking Member.................................     8
    Prepared statement of Hon. Steil.............................     8
Hon. Rodney Davis................................................    12
    Prepared statement of Hon. Davis.............................    12

                               WITNESSES

Brad Ashwell, Florida State Director, All Voting Is Local........    18
    Prepared statement of Mr. Ashwell............................    18
Brenda Holt, Commissioner, Gadsden County Board of Commissioners.    27
    Prepared statement of Commissioner Holt......................    27
Cecile Scoon, President, League of Women Voters of Florida.......    33
     Prepared statement of Ms. Scoon.............................    33
Matletha Bennette, Senior Staff Attorney, Voting Rights Group, 
  Southern Poverty Law Center....................................    48
    Prepared statement of Ms. Bennette...........................    48
Chris Anderson, Supervisor of Elections, Seminole County, 
  Sanford, Florida...............................................    60
    Prepared statement of Mr. Anderson...........................    60

                       SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

United States District Court North District of Florida, 
  Tallahassee Division, League of Women Voters of Florida Inc., 
  et al., v. Laurel M. Lee and National Republican Senatorial 
  Committee and Republican National Committee, Case No. 4:21 cv 
  186-MW/MAF, submission.........................................    80
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, League 
  of Women Voters of Florida, Inc. et al. v. Florida Secretary of 
  State, et al., submission......................................   368
November 4, 2020, Tampa Bay Times, Why Can't these States be more 
  like Florida? submission.......................................   383
Matletha Bennette, Senior Staff Attorney, Voting Rights, Southern 
  Poverty Law Center, Supplementary Material, submission.........   387
Equal Ground Education and Action Fund, submission...............   393
Hon. Rodney Davis, The Elections Clause: States' Primary 
  Constitutional Authority over Elections, submission............   395
Senate Bill No. 90, Enrolled and Engrossed, State Legislature of 
  Florida, 2021, submission......................................   404
Senate Bill No. 524, Enrolled and Engrossed, State Legislature of 
  Florida, 2022, submission......................................   452
Zack Smith, Legal Fellow, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial 
  Studies, The Heritage Foundation, submission...................   499
Supreme Court of the United States, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware 
  Co., March 3, 1982, No. 81-202, submission.....................   505
Lawyers Democracy Fund, Florida Voting Law Fact Sheet, submission   537
Foundation for Government Accountability, In Defense of SB90: 
  Florida's Election Integrity Law, submission...................   543
.................................................................
Foundation for Government Accountability, Florida Leads the Way 
  on Election Integrity, submission..............................   552
Public Interest Legal Foundation, Safe Harbor: How Many Potential 
  Election Crimes Languish in Florida Prosecutors' Offices?, 
  November 2021, submission......................................   555
Foundation for Government Accountability, Governor Ron DeSantis 
  Strengthens Florida's Democratic Process with Senate Bill 524, 
  April 26, 2022, submission.....................................   574
Foundation for Government Accountability, Florida House Passes 
  Election Integrity Legislation, Securing State Elections and 
  Protecting Voters' Voices, March 9, 2022, submission...........   577
Foundation for Government Accountability, FGA Applauds the 
  Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Decision Defending the 
  Constitutionality of Florida's Election Integrity Law (SB 90), 
  submission.....................................................   580
Foundation for Government Accountability, Legal Assault on 
  Florida's Election Reforms, submission.........................   581
Washington Times, Stewart Whitson, When it comes to election 
  integrity, what happens in Florida won't stay in Florida, May 
  3, 2022, submission............................................   582
Opportunity Solutions Project, Florida Election Integrity Poll, 
  submission.....................................................   586
National Review, Much Higher Minority Early Voting in Georgia's 
  Upcoming Primaries, submission.................................   593

 
           VOTING IN AMERICA: ACCESS TO THE BALLOT IN FLORIDA

                              ----------                             

                        WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2022

                  House of Representatives,
                         Subcommittee on Elections,
                         Committee on House Administration,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 a.m., at 
the Tallahassee City Hall Commission Chambers, 300 S. Adams 
Street, Tallahassee, Florida, Hon. G.K. Butterfield [Chairman 
of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Butterfield, Aguilar, Leger 
Fernandez, and Steil.
    Also Present: Representatives Lawson, Rodney Davis of 
Illinois, Gimenez, and Cammack.
    Staff Present: Eddie Flaherty, Chief Clerk; Sarah Nasta, 
Elections Counsel; Sean Jones, Legislative Clerk and 
Professional Staff Member; Tim Monahan, Minority Staff 
Director; Caleb Hays, Minority General Counsel and Deputy Staff 
Director; Nick Crocker, Minority Deputy Staff Director; and 
Gineen Bresso, Minority Special Counsel.
    Chairman Butterfield. The Subcommittee on Elections of the 
Committee on House Administration will now come to order.
    I want to ensure that we have a good connection, so I am 
going to give a countdown: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, 
four, three, two, one.
    Are we sufficiently connected?
    The staff says yes.
    Good morning, everyone.
    As we begin, I want to note that we are holding this 
hearing in compliance with the regulations for Remote Committee 
Proceedings pursuant to House Resolution 8.
    And so, I will ask unanimous consent that the chair be 
authorized to declare a recess of the Subcommittee at any point 
and that all Members have five legislative days in which to 
revise and extend their remarks and have any written statements 
be made a part of the record.
    I hear no objections, and so it is therefore ordered.
    I also ask unanimous consent that my dear friend 
Congressman Al Lawson of the Fifth District of Florida as well 
as Congresswoman Kat Cammack of the Third District of Florida, 
and Congressman Carlos Gimenez of the 26th District of Florida 
be allowed to join us today.
    Mr. Lawson. Florida.
    I hear no objection and it is therefore ordered.
    Thank you to our colleague Mr. Lawson for so warmly 
welcoming us here to Tallahassee and to our colleagues who are 
joining us for today's proceedings, both here in Florida and 
virtually.
    Thank you, also, to the Tallahassee City Hall for hosting 
us and to our witnesses for joining us for this important 
hearing.
    We are here today to continue this Subcommittee's 
examination of voting in America and to discuss the state of 
voting and access to the ballot here in the State of Florida.
    The 2020 election was fair and secure, so says security 
experts at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and 
Florida's own State officials. All of them have said the same 
thing: the 2020 election was fair and secure.
    However, despite no evidence whatsoever supporting the need 
for new election restrictions, in 2021 Florida enacted a 
sweeping piece of elections legislation that erects many, many 
new and unnecessary barriers to the ballot.
    More than 4 million Floridians cast a mail-in ballot in the 
last election, with no evidence of any widespread security risk 
or election fraud. Yet Florida enacted new restrictions making 
it more difficult to cast a mail-in ballot, such as limiting 
access to ballot drop boxes, making it more difficult to remain 
on the State's vote-by-mail list, and limiting the ability to 
provide and receive assistance for returning a ballot.
    These are just a few examples of the barriers enacted by 
Senate Bill 90. This law is the subject of ongoing litigation, 
with a Federal judge recently ruling that several of the law's 
provisions are unconstitutional.
    Furthermore, Florida has taken the troubling step of 
creating a new Office of Election Crimes and Security. I have 
done a lot of research on that in the last 48 hours, and that 
appears to be very disappointing, and I hope to hear some 
reasons today why it should or should not continue. But they 
have created an Office of Election Crimes and Security to 
investigate supposed election fraud and crimes, despite no 
evidence of either in Florida's elections.
    Enacting laws such as this does not bolster election 
integrity. Rather, it creates a serious risk for voter and 
election administrator intimidation, and it perpetuates the 
false narrative that American elections are not secure.
    In the wake of an election with record voter participation 
and in which more than eleven million Floridians cast a ballot, 
we should be working to increase ballot access, not erecting 
unnecessary barriers that could very well disenfranchise 
voters.
    These are just two examples of recent actions taken in the 
State. Florida's new congressional map is also the subject of 
ongoing litigation for arguably diluting minority voting 
strength.
    Despite the overwhelming will of Florida voters in 2018 to 
re-enfranchise formerly incarcerated individuals, Florida 
enacted legislation requiring all returning citizens to pay all 
the fines and fees they may owe before their right to vote is 
restored, erecting a terrible financial barrier to voting that 
many may not be able to overcome.
    The ability to cast a ballot free of undue burden and 
discrimination is the cornerstone of our participatory 
democracy. It should not be determined by geography, but it 
should be free, fair, and equitable for every American. 
Securing our elections should be a top priority, but it should 
not be used as a pretense to enact laws making it harder for 
voters to access the ballot.
    And so, with all of that said, I look forward to hearing 
from today's witnesses about the state of voting and access to 
the ballot here in Florida and continuing to work with my 
colleagues to ensure that we break down barriers so every voter 
can cast their ballot.
    Thank you for listening. I am now going to recognize my 
friend who I see on the screen and hope he is well. I now 
recognize Ranking Member Steil for his opening statement.
    [The statement of Chairman Butterfield follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Mr. Steil. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I wish I 
could be with you in person.
    I think it is terrific we are in Florida. The only State I 
could think it would be better to be in today would be Georgia, 
where we can celebrate record voter turnout, despite all the 
claims made on the left of attempts to limit voter access. What 
we saw yesterday in Georgia was record voter turnout, both on 
the Democrat and the Republican side, despite there even being 
a competitive Democratic primary. I would say that is success.
    What we are seeing is laws being put in place that make it 
easy to vote and hard to cheat. And so, I think it is 
important, now that we have seen the success in Georgia, it is 
important that we are having this hearing about access to the 
ballot in Florida, because I think Florida has worked hard to 
strengthen their laws to ensure free, fair, and secure 
elections. So has Wisconsin and, as I mentioned, Georgia. 
Voters are noticing, and there is increased turnout at the 
polls, which is good for our democracy.
    We don't need top-down Federal mandates. States, who have 
primary authority over elections, are in the best position to 
understand their voter needs and how to address them.
    Florida is a perfect example of this. Since the infamous 
2000 election with the hanging chads, they identified problems 
in the process and fixed them in ways that work for Florida 
voters.
    And, once that trust was restored, voter turnout increased. 
In 2002, voter turnout was 55 percent, according to Florida's 
Division of Elections. In 2020, voter turnout was 77 percent, 
the highest in 20 years. And just for a comparison, because it 
is hard to do apples-to-apples, Delaware, home State of our 
President, had a lower voter turnout rate of just over 68 
percent.
    This effect is not contained to just Florida. My home State 
of Wisconsin implemented photo ID and had one of the highest 
election turnout rates in the country in 2020. Georgia is 
seeing an impressive increase in voter turnout after updating 
their election laws. The proof is in the pudding from the 
results yesterday.
    I want to read from a Washington Post article published 
prior to the election this weekend, as it relates to voter 
turnout. They said, quote, ``After three weeks of early voting 
ahead of Tuesday's primary,'' yesterday's primary, ``record-
breaking turnout is undercutting predictions that the Georgia 
Election Integrity Act of 2021 would lead to a falloff in 
voting. By the end of Friday,'' last Friday, ``the final day of 
early in-person voting, nearly 800,000 Georgians had cast 
ballots--more than three times the number in 2018, and higher 
even than in 2020, a presidential year.''
    The fact is federalism works. We don't need to nationalize 
our elections and unconstitutionally take power away from 
States as those who support H.R. 1 propose.
    Laws like H.R. 1 would have made it harder for Florida and 
Georgia to implement the necessary safeguards that have 
ultimately restored voter confidence while also increasing 
participation. Laws like H.R. 1 would instead have the opposite 
impact, undermining voter confidence, because it would gut 
commonsense voter-integrity provisions like voter ID.
    We hear disinformation from those on the left and the Biden 
administration constantly, that States with new election-
integrity laws are suppressing voters, that commonsense voter-
integrity provisions like voter ID will make it harder to vote. 
President Biden even received four Pinocchios for his claims 
about the Georgia election law.
    With all these clearly factually inaccurate statements 
coming from the Biden administration and those on the left, it 
is too bad, maybe, that we don't have Biden's disinformation 
czar to help us with the fact-checks. Because the proof is in 
the pudding from yesterday, when we saw massive and record-
breaking voter participation in Georgia following their laws to 
improve voter integrity in Georgia.
    Instead of attacking key voter-integrity provisions and 
undermining trust, we should be working together to restore 
faith in our elections. Those on the left continue to make 
unsubstantiated claims that Republican-led States like Florida 
are trying to suppress voters. They are chipping away at 
America's confidence in our Republic.
    I suggest to my colleagues who are currently down in the 
great State of Florida that they take some time to learn what 
the State is doing and take some notes to share with their 
colleagues from other States.
    Because, to me, what the Sunshine State is doing is not 
suppressing voter turnout. What we saw play out in Georgia did 
not suppress voter turnout. And, in fact, some of the States 
that we hear the biggest complaints about are able to generate 
the highest voter participation, because people are beginning 
to gain trust in their elections. It is those on the left who 
are undermining our democracy by making false claims.
    I look forward to today's hearing, and, Mr. Chairman, I 
yield back.
    [The statement of Mr. Steil follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairman Butterfield. The gentleman yields back and thank 
you to the Ranking Member for your 5-minute statement.
    At this time, I will now recognize the Ranking Member of 
our full Committee, Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois, for 
any remarks that he would like to make.
    Mr. Davis.
    Mr. Davis. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is great to 
see you. I wish I could be there with you today and with my 
good friend Mr. Anderson.
    Thank you for joining us today as a witness.
    And I also see my friend and colleague Mr. Gimenez. I 
really appreciate your participation.
    I would like to start by noting that we should be having 
today's Subcommittee hearing in President Biden's home State of 
Delaware, maybe Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home State of 
California, or even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's home 
State of New York. Those States have a lot to learn from 
Republican-led States like Florida, who have done the hard work 
of identifying issues and updating their election laws to 
restore integrity and voter confidence.
    I would also like to quickly echo the Ranking Member, Mr. 
Steil, in applauding Florida for identifying lessons learned 
following the 2000 election and devising solutions that work 
for Floridians, ultimately becoming the gold standard--an 
accomplishment they have achieved without a Federal takeover of 
their elections.
    To be fair, like any other State, Florida has had some bad 
actors. Voters in South Florida have witnessed firsthand a 
total display of incompetence over the years in heavily 
Democratic Broward County by former Supervisor of Elections 
Brenda Snipes.
    Specifically, I would like to reference Ms. Snipes' own 
acknowledgement that ineligible non-voters have voted in 
previous elections and that she couldn't find as many as 2,040 
ballots during the 2018 midterm recount, not to mention her 
failure to report vote counts in accordance with Florida law. 
Thankfully for Broward County voters, she had no choice but to 
resign in 2018.
    Again, Florida exercised its sovereign power to address 
these issues, including through Florida's newly signed election 
law, Senate Bill 90, all without Federal interference.
    Here is what Florida's new law does right: It requires 
biannual maintenance of Florida's online voter registration 
system, strengthens security around drop boxes, increases 
transparency from county voting websites on Election Day, 
enhances transparency regarding voter registration and ballot 
duplication, and tightens provisions on ballot harvesting, just 
to list a few of the provisions.
    These commonsense measures should be nonpartisan, but 
Democrats continue to peddle the verifiably false narrative 
that Republicans are trying to suppress eligible voters, when, 
instead, Republicans want all eligible voters who want to vote 
to be able to cast a ballot and for those ballots to be counted 
according to law. Republicans want election processes to be 
transparent, consistent, and easy to understand. Democrats are 
yet using this fable of voter suppression to push a Federal 
power grab that is politically advantageous for those on the 
left.
    Florida's election law has survived review by the courts. 
An Obama-appointed district judge had struck down the new law, 
but that decision was swiftly and rightfully overturned by the 
11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
    The Florida legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis have been 
leading on election-integrity issues and have set an example 
for other States on how they can take a more proactive approach 
to ensuring voters can have confidence in election processes 
and outcomes from start to finish.
    Last month, Governor DeSantis also signed Senate Bill 524 
into law, legislation that requires voter rolls to be annually 
reviewed and updated, strengthens ID requirements, and prevents 
election supervisors from taking ``Zuckerbucks.'' Perhaps most 
notably, the bill establishes the Office of Election Crimes and 
Security to investigate voter fraud and increased penalties for 
ballot harvesting.
    We should all want free, fair, and transparent elections, 
so this bill should be welcome by even those on the left. But, 
again, it really doesn't fit their narrative.
    Nevertheless, it is not too late to change course. I urge 
my Democrat colleagues to stop spreading misinformation about 
Florida's election laws and instead help encourage every State 
to implement similar safeguards that restore faith in our 
elections.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    [The statement of Mr. Davis of Illinois follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairman Butterfield. I thank the gentleman for his opening 
statement.
    At this time, it is my pleasure to recognize your 
Congressman here in Tallahassee and surrounding counties, 
Congressman Al Lawson of Florida's Fifth Congressional 
District, for any comments that he would like to make.
    Congressman Lawson.
    Mr. Lawson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to 
Tallahassee, the capital of Florida and it is a pleasure to 
have you and the Members to join us.
    I would like to tell you that Tallahassee is built on 
several hills, you know, and we border Georgia. I remember this 
morning you asked me how close with Georgia, and I told you it 
was about 28 miles from here. We have a lot in common.
    We wanted you all to enjoy the scenery in Tallahassee. I 
know that you are on a short notice, but we are bordered here 
by two universities--Florida A&M University, Florida State 
University--and a community college. And right where we are 
here in City Hall, we are less than a mile from each one of the 
universities. They are very close to each other. So, we have a 
lot of students here.
    And right behind us is the capitol, and, as you know, they 
are in session at this time to do something about the insurance 
problems, property insurance, that we have in the State of 
Florida.
    We certainly hope that--staff is here. My staff is here 
that came down from D.C. We are honored to have the Election 
Subcommittee come to Florida to discuss those issues that we 
have involved in the process that we have in the State of 
Florida.
    Also, I would like to welcome the panel here. I think we 
have an outstanding panel for the discussion that we have 
today, and certainly appreciate the opportunity to visit with 
them.
    And so, we want to make you an honorary member of the State 
of Florida, Mr. Chairman. And so, we don't want this to be your 
last trip, and some of the other Members, to the Tallahassee 
area.
    And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I turn it back over to you.
    Chairman Butterfield. Thank you very much, Mr. Lawson. I 
have family in Daytona Beach and, years ago, family in Ocala, 
Florida, so I do have some roots here and also in Opa-Locka, 
Florida. That is right.
    All right. Let's move right along.
    Before I introduce our witnesses, as a reminder, each of 
you will be recognized for 5 minutes. Your entire written 
statements will be made part of the record. The record will 
remain open for at least 5 days for additional materials to be 
submitted.
    And so, again, welcome to our witnesses. Joining us today, 
first, is Brad Ashwell of All Voting is Local; Gadsden County 
Commissioner Brenda Holt; Cecile Scoon of the League of Women 
Voters of Florida; Matletha Bennette of the Southern Poverty 
Law Center; and, finally, Seminole County Supervisor of 
Elections Chris Anderson.
    I thank all of you.
    Also, let me say that Brad is the Florida State Director of 
All Voting is Local. Mr. Ashwell has more than 15 years of 
State and Federal legislative experience with nonprofit 
advocacy groups working to improve election administration 
systems and voter access.
    The Honorable Brenda Holt serves as Commissioner on the 
Gadsden County, Florida, Commission and has served on that 
commission since 2002. She was the first African American woman 
elected to the Commission. She has served five times as 
Commission Chair and is past President of the local chapter of 
the NAACP.
    Ms. Scoon is the President of the League of Women Voters of 
Florida, the first African-American to serve in this capacity. 
She is a civil rights lawyer in Panama City, past president of 
the League of Women Voters of Bay County and served 5 years as 
an active duty Air Force JAG officer. Impressive.
    Matletha Bennette serves as Senior Staff Attorney of the 
Southern Poverty Law Center's Voting Rights Program. Prior to 
joining the Southern Poverty Law Center, she served as Legal 
and Legislative Advisor to the Florida Senate Democratic 
Office, providing analysis and input on election law as well as 
criminal and civil justice policies.
    Chris Anderson is with us virtually on Zoom.
    Chris Anderson is the Supervisor of Elections in Seminole 
County. He was appointed Supervisor of Elections by Governor 
DeSantis beginning in January 2019. Prior to this, Mr. Anderson 
served in the U.S. military, in law enforcement, and in the 
county tax collector's office.
    With that said, I am now ready to begin with Mr. Ashwell. 
You are now recognized, sir, for 5 minutes.

STATEMENTS OF BRAD ASHWELL, FLORIDA STATE DIRECTOR, ALL VOTING 
 IS LOCAL; BRENDA HOLT, COMMISSIONER, GADSDEN COUNTY BOARD OF 
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, CECILE SCOON, PRESIDENT, LEAGUE OF WOMEN 
 VOTERS OF FLORIDA, MATLETHA BENNETTE, SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, 
  VOTING RIGHTS GROUP, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER; AND CHRIS 
  ANDERSON, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS, SEMINOLE COUNTY, FLORIDA

                       Statement of Brad Ashwell

    Mr. Ashwell. Thank you, and good morning. My name is Brad 
Ashwell. I am the Florida State Director for All Voting is 
Local. I would like to thank Chairman Butterfield, Ranking 
Member Steil, Congressman Lawson, and Members of the 
Subcommittee for giving me the opportunity to testify today.
    All Voting is Local was launched in 2018 as a campaign of 
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. We work to 
eliminate needless and discriminatory barriers to voting before 
they become a problem on election day so that democracy works 
for all of us.
    My comments today will focus on several of the more 
dangerous barriers to the ballot currently facing Florida 
voters due to recent legislative changes that were fueled by 
lies and conspiracy theories that imperil our freedom to vote 
and our democracy.
    Florida has a long history of voter intimidation using law 
enforcement, dating back to Jim Crow. The centerpiece of S.B. 
524 legislation, signed into law exactly a month ago, builds on 
this dark history through the creation of a new elections 
police unit called the Office of Election Crimes and Security, 
which wields a dangerous degree of power with few checks.
    Under this office, non-sworn agents have authority to 
pursue investigations of potential election law violations and 
any election irregularities--a broad term bill sponsors refused 
to define. Also, the office will be able to self-initiate 
investigations, something not even the State's Ethics 
Commission can do.
    The office will also be able to investigate claims that are 
filed anonymously. There is nothing to prevent this office from 
being used to fuel misinformation about the election process 
based on frivolous and anonymous claims aimed at discouraging 
participation or intimidating voters.
    We are also concerned that the office could be used to 
target voter registration groups and local election officials 
for partisan purposes, to either thwart participation or even 
upend election results themselves.
    Vote-by-mail is secure and popular. It has been a mainstay 
in Florida for two decades, with voters across the ideological 
spectrum successfully using this method to vote. Unfortunately, 
vote-by-mail has become the primary target of anti-voter 
legislation.
    Following the 2020 election, State legislators focused on 
criminalizing efforts to assist voters who need help returning 
their vote-by-mail ballots. S.B. 90 in 2021 made it a 
misdemeanor for anyone to return vote-by-mail ballots other 
than their own, their immediate family members', and two 
additional ballots.
    This year, S.B. 524 elevated the penalty for violating this 
law from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony. This not only 
criminalizes Floridians who help others deliver their vote-by-
mail ballots but also could punish them by taking away their 
right to vote if found in violation, even if they did not 
intend to violate the law.
    S.B. 90 also imposed a new requirement that voters include 
additional identification on vote-by-mail requests--a Florida 
driver's license, a State ID card number, or last four digits 
of their Social Security number. The bill will also require 
Supervisors of Elections to match that identification submitted 
by the voter before validating the request. The problem is, 
election officials don't have that identification data on file 
for all voters, particularly some older voters. Supervisors of 
Elections are not required to contact the voter if they are 
unable to confirm their ID. Some of those who want to do that 
outreach have even told us they might not have the time in the 
busy days leading up to the election.
    To give you some numbers, as of May 2021, over 600,000 
registered voters in the Florida voter registration system did 
not have a driver's license, State ID, or Social Security 
number on file.
    The Broward County Supervisor of Elections reported that he 
had 73,000 vote-by-mail requests with no matchable identifiers 
on file last fall before the Congressional District 20 special 
election. He tried to contact those voters, most of whom were 
seniors, but only received a 10 percent response rate.
    Just this week, there was an article in the Pensacola News 
Journal about the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections 
notifying 14,000 voters about their registration data--they 
lacked the registration data on file that was needed to receive 
a vote-by-mail ballot.
    These requirements place additional unfunded burdens on 
Supervisors of Elections to send mailers, conduct voter 
education, and other efforts to reduce confusion and, ideally, 
the number of rejected vote-by-mail ballots.
    These issues I have spoken about are merely a sampling of 
the problems created by this legislation. I wish I had an hour.
    In conclusion, our democracy works best when every voter 
can make their voice heard. Election administration practices 
must be used to ensure that the freedom of the vote belongs to 
all Americans. Instead, recently adopted laws and practices 
establish barriers to voting and serve to disenfranchise 
hundreds of thousands of Floridians, particularly voters of 
color. Floridians deserve free and fair elections, not more 
restrictions on access to the ballot.
    We look forward to working with elected officials at all 
levels of government to ensure that elections are administered 
fairly and equitably so that every American, regardless of 
race, socioeconomic status, age, or ability, can make their 
voices heard. Nothing short of our democracy is at stake.
    And that concludes my comments. Thank you.
    [The statement of Mr. Ashwell follows:]
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    Chairman Butterfield. And we thank you, Mr. Ashwell.
    At this time, I will recognize Commissioner Holt for 5 
minutes.

                        Statement of Brenda Holt

    Ms. Holt. Thank you very much.
    I just sat and listened to everything, and my data is 
almost the same as the gentleman next to me.
    I would like to thank Chairman Butterfield, and I would 
like to thank the Subcommittee Ranking Member, Mr. Steil, for 
his comments.
    This opportunity to speak is very important in Florida. I 
am from Gadsden County, Congressman Lawson's home county. I 
would like to say this, instead of requoting some of the things 
that were already said:
    We are on the Georgia-Florida line. Before I got on the 
Board in Gadsden County, some of the constituents in that 
county had to go up into Georgia, come back into Florida to 
vote, because they didn't have access to a polling place within 
5 to 10 miles of their home. So those are problems that we had.
    Once the laws changed that say that you can vote inside of 
the Supervisor's office if you could not get to your polling 
place, and you could vote in the Supervisor's office, the 
previous Supervisor of Elections said, ``You can't vote here,'' 
and he put them out. And I was there.
    So those are some things that happen when you have people 
controlling elections that do not have any intent on doing the 
right thing as far as the people that vote in the rural areas.
    Gadsden County is a rural county. It is less than 50,000 
people. And they are not--they are a predominantly Black 
county, the only predominantly Black county in the State of 
Florida. They are not there by accident. They are there 
because, when slaves were brought into Florida, they were 
distributed out of the Gadsden territory throughout the State 
of Florida.
    Tennessee Street that goes through Tallahassee from the 
Gulf--it is U.S. 90--over to the Atlantic, that is the slave 
trail. That is where they brought the slaves into Gadsden; they 
divided them up. The towns are 25 to 30 miles apart because 
that is how far a slave male can carry products on his back in 
a day.
    So, when you see things being changed, that we can't have 
our own Representative in Congressional District Five, it is 
very important to us. I receive several calls from people that 
know the history of Gadsden County, saying, ``Brenda, say 
this,'' ``Brenda, say that,'' and ``Why are we not being 
treated fairly?'' So, these are the things that are very 
concerning to people that are poor.
    Now, when you are talking about there are Congressmen and 
women talking about ballot harvesting. If you live ten miles 
from town and you are going to take the ballots into town, you 
have your cousins and relatives and other--so you must go make 
two or three trips to get those ballots there, if you are going 
to take them in. And so you are not talking about around the 
corner, down the street, to a drop box. You are talking about 
some distance. And so, you can't take cousins' ballots, you 
can't take any other relatives' ballots, other than the ones 
that are stated in that law. These are the things that are 
concerning, that cause hardship on people that already do not 
have money to do that.
    When we look at the causes of these laws, you have to say, 
always say, how do people say Republican and Democrat, right 
and left? What happened to just do the right thing to help 
people? There we have a problem.
    I will tell you another problem. That is why the people and 
minorities do not trust these new laws. There are several 
reasons, but if you just look at the history of moving Red and 
Black Indians out of our county in this area to Oklahoma, they 
had a tradition; the path was to take a stick and trim it, and 
if it is lighter than your skin, you must go to Oklahoma. And 
then what happened after that, they would put the stick in your 
hair and shake your head. If the stick falls out, you must go 
to Oklahoma.
    So, we look very suspiciously at these type of laws when 
they come. What is this election police law going to do? How 
many people are going to not come in to vote simply because 
they think you are going to do something to them? These are the 
true facts that happen.
    You have my congressional statement. As I have said before, 
we have had the previous Supervisor of Elections and his father 
were there for a combined session of 52 years, and it was very 
difficult for Blacks in Gadsden County to vote.
    Thank you.
    [The statement of Ms. Holt follows:]
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    Chairman Butterfield. Thank you very much, Commissioner, 
for your testimony.
    And I might say, when I was a young boy in Wilson, North 
Carolina, there was a local African American attorney who was 
blind who was from Gadsden, Florida, Gadsden County, Florida, 
and his name was Gadsden.
    Ms. Holt. Really?
    Chairman Butterfield. Yes.
    Ms. Holt. Okay.
    Chairman Butterfield. All right. So, thank you for your 
testimony.
    Ms. Holt. Thank you.
    Chairman Butterfield. At this time, I will recognize Ms. 
Scoon for her 5 minutes of testimony.

                       Statement of Cecile Scoon

    Ms. Scoon. Thank you. Chairman Butterfield and other 
Members, thank you for this opportunity to speak today.
    My name is Cecile Scoon, and I speak on behalf of the 
League of Women Voters of Florida. We are a nonpartisan 
organization encouraging citizens to register to vote and to 
educate voters so they can vote with knowledge.
    The League's origin experiences--women blocked from voting 
over 100 years ago--has made us concerned about all 
marginalized voters. The early suffragettes' initial desire to 
vote was driven by the realization that women's efforts to 
abolish slavery would not be taken seriously without their 
right to vote.
    Testimony in the recent Senate Bill 90 litigation this year 
revealed that the legislators would ask the Division of 
Elections how different groups of people voted, including 
African Americans, and the legislature would pass new 
legislation that would have a direct and disproportionate 
impact on African American voters.
    This has happened at least five times over the last 20 
years, beginning with Senate Bill 1355, which cut back early 
voting, eliminating one of the Sundays that Black churches were 
using to increase voting with their efforts called Souls to the 
Polls. The League sued on that case and won, and many of those 
rules were struck down.
    In addition, the testimony in Senate Bill 90 litigation 
showed that African Americans relied very heavily on third-
party voter-registrant organizations, more so than other 
groups. So, any of the laws that threaten or affect third-party 
organizations, like the League of Women Voters, also have a 
disparate impact on persons of color.
    The next law that was looked at in the litigation and the 
testimony was Senate Bill 7066, which added a requirement that 
all financial obligations in a sentence had to be paid before a 
person could register to vote.
    This impacted Amendment 4, which was passed by the citizens 
as a citizen initiative to restore voting rights of returning 
citizens, those with felony convictions once their sentence was 
completed. This additional requirement to pay all the financial 
obligations has impacted 800,000 to 1.4 million persons, and a 
disproportionate number of those persons are African American.
    In 2021, the legislature passed Senate Bill 90, with 
limitations on the hours and days of early drop box usage. 
Given the multiple jobs that many African Americans have and 
the shift work they do, it is going to be impossible or close 
to impossible for them to get off during regular business hours 
to use the drop box and put their ballot in there.
    In addition, with the limitations on not being able to turn 
in other people's ballots, which was customarily used in many 
Black churches to help the disabled and the elderly, that is 
also going to impact many African Americans.
    Again, the League went to court with several of our allies, 
and we won in trial court. This win has been appealed, and 
there is a stay on the remedy.
    This issue of limiting votes, voting limitations, has 
continued this year with the passage of Senate Bill 524. One of 
the things that it does is it increases the penalty on third-
party voter registrants, their annual penalty, from $1,000 a 
year to $50,000 a year. This amount of money is going to impact 
and scare many smaller third-party voter-registrant 
organizations, such as small churches, and it will impact the 
League.
    It also makes it a felony for someone to collect, even for 
free, ballots of non-family-members, more than two per 
election.
    And then we come to redistricting. And the saga of 
redistricting in Florida this year is well-known. The Governor 
started from the beginning, insisting that he wanted his map 
drawn. He tried to get an advisory opinion from the Florida 
Supreme Court. He drafted a map himself, which is unusual, and 
that map essentially diminishes the voting power of African-
Americans by limiting the number of districts that they have 
from four to two.
    We believe that we have had to rely upon the courts to stop 
these incursions on the voting rights of others. We contend 
that the Governor's map is an affront to the requirement to 
follow judicial precedent. It is an affront to the voters of 
Florida, all of whom voted for Fair Districts, which provides 
protections against such voter limitations with redistricting.
    We thank you very much for this opportunity to speak.
    [The statement of Ms. Scoon follows:]
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    Chairman Butterfield. We thank you as well.
    Ms. Bennette, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

                     Statement of Matletha Bennette

    Ms. Bennette. Good morning, Chairman Butterfield, Ranking 
Member Steil, Congressman Al Lawson, and Members of the 
Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Elections. I 
am Matletha Bennette, a Senior Staff Attorney in the Voting 
Rights Practice Group at the Southern Poverty Law Center and 
SPLC Action Fund.
    Florida has a long history of denying voting rights to its 
citizens. Despite gains made over the past several decades, we 
face a renewed commitment to return to the old shameful days of 
poll taxes, literacy tests, identification cards, and 
citizenship tests.
    These modern-day voter suppression efforts are often 
rhetorically clothed in election integrity legislation. As a 
result, opponents of voting reform, emboldened by lies of 
fraud, have been successful in inciting violence, intimidating 
voters, and subverting the will of the people.
    To help the Subcommittee understand the historical context 
for these efforts, our written testimony describes how Florida 
used tools such as grandfather clauses and literacy tests to 
circumvent the constitutionally protected class of race in the 
15th Amendment; how Floridians resorted to violence to silence 
the Black electorate, culminating in the 1920 Ocoee Election 
Day massacre; how, in 2013, the Supreme Court stripped away 
Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and how there is a 
need for Federal action to stop the wave of discriminatory 
voting laws flooding the South.
    In 2018, 65 percent of Floridians voted ``yes'' to 
Amendment 4, restoring rights to up to 1.4 million individuals 
with criminal records and promulgating the largest expansion of 
the right to vote since the Voting Rights Act. In response, 
Florida officials enacted so-called ``implementing 
legislation'' that gutted the spirit of Amendment 4 by 
conditioning the right to vote on the ability to pay a fee.
    This unconstitutional poll tax discriminates against people 
based on their wealth and continues to disenfranchise hundreds 
of thousands of Floridians. Some estimates even say about 80 
percent of those who would have originally been re-enfranchised 
are still disenfranchised. These individuals are struggling to 
obtain decent jobs or housing and finding it impossible to 
navigate Florida's decentralized system of records.
    Over the last few years, suppressive voting measures, such 
as Senate Bill 90 and Senate Bill 524, have created unnecessary 
barriers and burdens that disproportionately and 
unconstitutionally impact Black and Latinx voters, women 
voters, the elderly, and voters with disabilities.
    Rapidly changing election laws have planted confusion in 
the minds of voters about new rules and inspired fear in local 
election officials. As weapons of harassment and intimidation, 
these excessive restrictions perpetuate distrust and decrease 
voter turnout.
    The Office of Election Crimes and Security in Senate Bill 
524 is unnecessary and duplicative. Without guardrails, it is 
an unwieldy tool for targeting voter registration groups and 
local election officials--a terrifying reminder of this 
country's history of using law enforcement to threaten and 
intimidate people from voting.
    Florida has ramped up arrests of formerly incarcerated 
citizens now being charged with committing voter fraud, some of 
whom mistakenly thought they could vote in the wake of 
confusing guidance following the passage of Amendment 4.
    Political bodies across the country seek to drown out the 
minority vote through gerrymandered redistricting maps, 
igniting a political tug-of-war for local, State, and 
Congressional seats.
    Our democracy is under threat. These anti-voter reforms are 
compounded by a thread of lies weaving its way through our 
country. The internet is a petri dish for deception, and 
without a fierce defense of greater voting-rights protection, 
the infection of disinformation will continue to fester.
    Voting is not a privilege but a fundamental right. Our 
citizens deserve more.
    In conclusion, my testimony includes three policy 
recommendations for Congress and the administration:
    First, increase funding for election administration. States 
like Florida that prohibit third-party donations to election 
officials are starving for funding to keep our democracy 
running.
    Second, increase DOJ resources to expand enforcement 
capacity of the Voting Section, ensuring that all eligible 
voters can cast a vote, have their vote counted, and have 
access to accurate information.
    Third, support nonpartisan Federal voting legislation that 
protects all citizens. To realize the promise of democracy for 
all, we need to establish robust standards and restore the 1965 
Voting Rights Act to its full strength.
    It is imperative that the Federal government act now to 
protect the dilution, discrimination, and disenfranchisement of 
voters in Florida. We look forward to working with you.
    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
    [The statement of Ms. Bennette follows:]
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    Chairman Butterfield. And thank you as well.
    Our final witness appears to be Mr. Anderson.
    Mr. Anderson, you are now recognized, sir, for 5 minutes.

                      Statement of Chris Anderson

    Mr. Anderson. Thank you very much. Good morning, Chairman 
Butterfield, Ranking Member Steil, Ranking Member Davis, and 
the Committee. Thank you for allowing me to testify here today.
    It is fair to say that most of us remember and recall the 
general election of 2000. In the 20 years since, Florida and 
many other States have made great strides, culminating in an 
extremely accurate and administratively successful 2020 general 
election.
    Florida made these improvements to allow voters more 
accessibility in voting options. We have a no-excuse vote-by-
mail option. We have early voting options with flexibilities 
for supervisors. We also have election day voting as well.
    Election security has been a top priority that myself, my 
66 other colleagues, and the Department of State have gone into 
great partnerships to make sure that elections in the State of 
Florida remain secure.
    One of the things that I would like to say personally about 
myself: Upon being elected in 2020, I became the first African 
American to hold a constitutional seat in the history of 
Seminole County. I am a proud Black American that believes in 
the American Dream. I looked at my wife the other day and we 
both agreed that we were living it.
    Coming from broken homes, I saw so much failure, she and I 
both, that my father would say to me, ``Chris, I am the perfect 
example of what not to be.'' And I only hope that as I sit in 
front of each one of you today, in this humble and honored 
participation on this Committee, that I am the perfect example 
of what he wanted me to be.
    My grandmother Ida--Mr. Chairman, you mentioned that you 
have family in Ocala. Well, my family is from Dunnellon, 
Florida, just 23 miles away from Ocala. My grandmother picked 
fruit to put food on her table, to clothe her children. My 
father was raised in a shack in those backwoods.
    And who knew that a little boy from Dunnellon, Florida, 
would one day sit in front of Members of Congress and talk 
about democracy, as he wrote sermons and one day hoped to speak 
to the masses. So, I am extremely grateful.
    I want to take a moment to give you some statistics about 
Seminole County in particular, as I represent there. We have 
335,035 voters. The Times magazine said that Seminole County is 
a picture of the United States, that the way that the general 
election will go in 2020, that that will tell the tale for the 
rest of the country.
    We had 262,092 votes; ballots cast in that election. That 
was almost an 80 percent turnout. Our population is 466,000. We 
have roughly 70 percent of our population registered, and they 
do vote. I believe that voters will make voting a priority.
    Our voting population is essentially a third and a third 
and a third. We have approximately 35,521 registered African 
Americans. We have approximately 54,709 Hispanic Americans. We 
have seen a great turnout from all spectrums of our voting 
population.
    I would just like to say that my first election in 2020, 
who knew it would be a worldwide pandemic on top of it. And 
without the partnership from the Governor, from Governor Ron 
DeSantis, without the secretary of state's office listening to 
election officials, I believe that that is what made the 2020 
election safe and made it secure and made it successful. We 
have had a great turnout ever since.
    I am looking forward to 2022. 2022 is going to be one of 
the most important midterm elections in our country's history.
    And that is what election officials are doing. I have heard 
the mention of redistricting. Let me explain that Supervisors 
of Elections oversee your precinct. It is our job to make sure 
that every voter, regardless of what they look like, regardless 
of what is in their bank account, have the ability and the 
access to the ballot. And that is what my job is, and that is 
what I am going to make sure happens.
    So, I want everyone here to know that there is a 
Supervisor--and I can speak for my other 66 colleagues in 
saying we will do everything in our power to make sure that 
every voter in the State of Florida has the opportunity to 
vote.
    Thank you very much.
    [The statement of Mr. Anderson follows:]
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    Chairman Butterfield. And we thank you as well, Mr. 
Anderson, for your testimony.
    It is now time for Member questions, and we will take it in 
this order: First it will be Aguilar, Steil, Leger Fernandez, 
Cammack, Lawson, Gimenez, and the Chairman.
    At this time, the Chair recognizes Mr. Aguilar of 
California for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Aguilar. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate 
the opportunity to be here.
    Thanks to all our panelists for joining us today on such an 
important topic.
    I appreciate Mr. Anderson talking about that this election 
was secure and safe. I think Americans and Floridians need to 
know that. From the highest levels of government, over the past 
year and a half, we have heard time and time again that that 
wasn't the case, from the former President. So, I appreciate 
elections officials time and time again speaking before us, Mr. 
Chairman, and reemphasizing that important point.
    Mr. Ashwell, last month, Governor DeSantis signed Senate 
Bill 524, which we have talked about here a little today. I was 
concerned and troubled by one specific provision within the 
bill that created the Nation's only election police unit that 
is supposedly to investigate election complaints.
    Can you tell me what system is in place right now in 
Florida to receive elections-related complaints and 
allegations? Can you explain to us how the system works and why 
the Governor proposes to create a new authority for this 
purpose?
    Mr. Ashwell. Sure. Thank you.
    So, the current system is a little fragmented, to be 
honest. I mean, complaints about election problems can go to 
the local Supervisor; they can come in through the Secretary of 
State's hotline; it can come in through the local sheriff. I 
think it is true that there could be better coordination of it.
    Our contention and position against this office, this new 
office, all along was that it was expensive and unnecessary, 
that the funds being used to create this new office, which has 
a myriad of problems, could have been more effectively used to 
just create better coordination and training among existing law 
enforcement agencies.
    Mr. Aguilar. Does it concern you that individuals, that 
this new law enforcement group will be around in the 
communities and could even muddy the process between some of 
those elections officials, county sheriffs, and some of those, 
you know, current reporting authorities?
    Mr. Ashwell. Yes. Definitely. I mean, it has been very 
muddy throughout the entire legislative process.
    In every committee this bill was heard, a lot of the 
minority members pointed out that it would be duplicative. And 
the responses were basically that, hey, the more, the merrier. 
If we have more agents looking at it, less fraud.
    And, I mean, I think it is important to look at the whole 
underlying premise of this office, I mean, that there is this 
large problem of systemic fraud that isn't being captured by 
the current system. So, their whole goal, really, with this--I 
believe the whole goal with this office is to substantiate 
claims that there is this problem, to build a record of there 
being a problem that really isn't there.
    We have tried to press them, others have tried to press 
them, to require more substantive reporting on the back end. 
You know, this office will have to report to the legislature 
annually on the number of complaints they receive, the nature 
of those complaints, but it doesn't have to report on frivolous 
complaints. We would contend that a lot of what they are 
probably going to get are frivolous complaints from people who 
have bought into conspiracy theories and election lies. And it 
is----
    Mr. Aguilar. Yes, I think that is fair, given the track 
record that we have seen.
    I am sorry. Because of time, I must interrupt you, try to 
get a question in to Ms. Bennette.
    Mr. Ashwell. Thank you.
    Mr. Aguilar. Ms. Bennette, in November 2018, Floridians 
overwhelmingly voted to restore voting rights to citizens who 
had prior felony convictions. You talked about this in your 
testimony. The legislature changed the confines of that law to 
ensure that it wasn't implemented.
    Can you explain how Senate Bill 7066 is a poll tax against 
poor Black and Brown Floridians?
    Ms. Bennette. Yes. Thank you for the question.
    So, when Senate Bill 7066 was passed, it was passed as sort 
of an implementing legislation, even though Amendment 4 by many 
organizations was clear and self-executing. Senate Bill 7066 
made it a requirement that returning citizens or formerly 
incarcerated people repay fines, fees, and restitution prior to 
them regaining their right to vote.
    When an incarcerated individual is released from prison, 
that person is given $50 and a bus pass. The first thing on 
their mind is, can I find me a place to stay, a place to eat, a 
bed, or possibly even a job that will even hire a formerly 
incarcerated felon?
    And then, they then must navigate Florida's decentralized 
system of records. Florida's 67 Clerks of Court, the Department 
of State, the Department of Corrections, the Office of 
Executive Clemency all these different agencies keep different 
records. And it was noted in the district court's opinion on 
Senate Bill 7066 that even the Secretary of State acknowledged 
it was unclear how a former felon could verify how much they 
owed.
    And so, couple that with an inability of someone to pay 
these fines, fees, and restitutions even if they could 
determine what they owed. It amounts to a poll tax.
    Chairman Butterfield. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. Aguilar. Thank you, my time has expired. Sorry, Mr. 
Chairman, I appreciate it and I yield back.
    Chairman Butterfield. Good to see you, sir.
    Now we will go from California to Wisconsin. Mr. Steil, you 
are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Steil. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Anderson, I would like to go straight to you on what I 
think might be the most important topic here of the day, which 
is, despite the claims that the Georgia election law changes 
would devastate turnout, in fact, according to all results last 
night, for the 2022 primaries, the turnout was higher than it 
was in the 2020 primaries.
    And so, the question I have for you is, why do you think 
there is such a disconnect between the rhetoric we continue to 
hear on the left and the actual results that we saw in Georgia 
and the voter participation at high rates that we continue to 
see in Florida as well?
    Mr. Anderson. Because there is not a--and thank you very 
much for the question. Because there is not enough emphasis put 
on the amount of outreach that is done by election officials.
    We do a ton of outreach in our community to make sure that 
folks are registering to vote, that they are prepared on 
Election Day. I have just signed a contract for marketing 
dollars to start advertising on streaming services, to start 
taking advantage of social media in many ways. I had my 
community services coordinator, who controls our social media, 
say to me that, guess what, Supervisor, we now have our social 
media platforms verified.
    You need to meet voters where they are----
    Mr. Steil. So----
    Mr. Anderson [continuing]. And communicate with them.
    Mr. Steil. Understood. I appreciate that comment.
    Do you think it is more challenging due to the rhetoric on 
the left, that they continue to beat the drum and tell people 
that it is difficult to vote? Do you find yourself having to 
expend funds from the State of Florida to get the word out that 
it is easy to vote and hard to cheat? Because we have dishonest 
rhetoric, we have misstatements, including from the President 
of the United States, really mischaracterizing voter-integrity 
laws, do you find yourself having to expend funds to get our 
message out, that it is easy to vote and hard to cheat?
    Mr. Anderson. I will say that, what I find is that the 
misinformation--it is hard to pierce through the noise.
    Mr. Steil. Yes.
    Mr. Anderson. I have said this to my staff, and I have said 
it repeatedly, that we have to do a better job from an 
association--I am the Chairman of the Public Relations 
Committee for the Supervisor-of-Elections association in the 
State of Florida, and we are going to do our job to get that 
information to the voters.
    Mr. Steil. Well, I appreciate the work you are doing.
    I think we need to do a better job in Congress for people 
to understand how the President earned four Pinocchios for his 
comments in Georgia. The proof is in the pudding, with massive 
and record voter turnout yesterday in Georgia. We continue to 
see high voter participation rates in Florida, higher than we 
would see in the President's home State of Delaware. And as the 
Ranking Member of the full Committee noted, we continue to see 
far more restrictive voting laws in States like New York, 
Delaware, than we do in Republican-led States.
    I want to dive in particularly on voter ID, an area that I 
think is a reasonable voter protection, one that H.R. 1 wants 
to completely gut nationwide.
    Could you comment as to what forms of voter ID are 
acceptable in Florida?
    Mr. Anderson. So, we have twelve acceptable forms of ID per 
Florida State Statute 101.043. You can use a concealed weapons 
permit, your Florida driver's license, your Florida ID, an out-
of-State student ID card, a residence card if you live at an 
ALF. There are so many different forms of identification that 
you can use to come in and vote.
    And my policy in Seminole County and in many other counties 
in the State of Florida, we never turn a voter away.
    Mr. Steil. So, hold on.
    Mr. Anderson. There is a provisional process in place--
    Mr. Steil. So let me get this straight. You have never 
turned a voter away who did not have an ID?
    Mr. Anderson. Never. We will never turn a voter away.
    Mr. Steil. I think that is important for the record. That 
is important. And the key here is, we are making it easy to 
vote and hard to cheat. And I appreciate the work that you are 
doing.
    I just want to briefly turn, if I can, to Ms. Bennette on 
the panel.
    Over the past several years, we have had increased focus on 
election security, and I think that is important. Cybersecurity 
and infrastructure security are important pieces of that.
    Can I ask you if you support enhancing cybersecurity and 
resiliency of our elections, yes, or no?
    Ms. Bennette. I believe that individuals should have free 
and fair access to the ballot----
    Mr. Steil. No, no. Just--understood. But do you support 
enhancing cybersecurity and resiliency in our elections?
    Ms. Bennette. If it makes it more difficult, it erects 
barriers for individuals, no.
    Mr. Steil. So you are unsure if we should be investing in 
cybersecurity and resiliency. Let me just say, I think it is 
important that we do that and that we have broad protections to 
make sure that we have robust security in our elections and we 
make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
    Recognizing, Mr. Chairman, that I am out of time, I 
appreciate you holding today's hearing on this important topic, 
and I will yield back.
    Chairman Butterfield. And thank you as well, Mr. Steil.
    We will now go from Wisconsin to New Mexico, where we had 
our last hearing just a few weeks ago. Ms. Leger Fernandez, 
five minutes.
    Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you so much, Chairman 
Butterfield, for coming to----
    Chairman Butterfield. Ms. Leger Fernandez, thank you and 
your husband for taking me out to dinner when I got to your 
county.
    And Mr. Lawson didn't show up last night; he had a Boy 
Scout commitment but he did take me to breakfast this morning.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Leger Fernandez. But did they have any green chili like 
we have in New Mexico?
    The hearing in New Mexico was great, because it showed all 
the work that we have done here to make sure that we make it 
easier for everybody to vote and that that has never sacrificed 
the integrity, because we have seen that there aren't issues 
with integrity in our elections.
    I want to just remind everybody that our Constitution, our 
United States Constitution, provides in Article I, Section 4, 
Clause 1 that Congress has the right to pass election laws for 
Federal elections. Indeed, the writers of the Constitution 
believed that it was essential that Congress have this power 
since there was a fear that States would seek to undermine the 
elections for Congress, the Federal elections.
    The writers of our Constitution were concerned about what 
States might do to impact everybody's ability to vote and, in 
some ways, were looking into the future, those writers of our 
Constitution, and describing what we are seeing in Republican-
controlled States.
    So, I would say that honoring our Constitution, for those 
who believe in this Constitution which we hold dear, honoring 
our Constitution means that you believe in Congress's role to 
protect voting for every citizen, regardless of color of skin 
or size of bank account.
    But sadly, we now see those who oppose allowing all voters 
easy access to the ballot, sort of having--you know, they are 
empowering anti-voting vigilantes, they are empowering anti-
democratic vigilantes against poll workers and voters.
    So, this Republican tendency to threaten to criminalize a 
citizen's choice to vote, a citizen's choice, right, to control 
their own future, which you do by voting, is in stark evidence 
in Florida and in other States that we have heard about over 
this time.
    And what I have heard each of the witnesses talk about is 
the voter turnout in 2020, right, high voter turnout. And I 
haven't heard anybody say anything but that the election was 
safe and secure.
    So let me ask the witnesses that. Is there anybody on our 
panel here that disagrees that the election was safe and secure 
in 2020 in Florida?
    Ms. Scoon. It was safe and secure.
    Ms. Holt. Yes, it was. The election was safe----
    Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I didn't hear 
anybody say that it wasn't safe and secure.
    So, Ms. Chairman, as you noted, even Governor DeSantis 
noted that the 2020 election was safe and secure. I would ask 
unanimous consent to enter an article into the record that 
notes Mr. DeSantis's remarks that the 2020 election inspired 
confidence. And that is a November 4, 2020, Tampa Bay news 
article titled ``Why can't these States be more like Florida?''
    Chairman Butterfield. Without objection, so ordered.
    So, it leads me to the question of why, if Florida, 
including the Governor, believed that election integrity was 
not an issue, why they used that as a rationale for laws that 
make it more difficult to vote, when we all just agreed that it 
was safe and secure.
    Mr. Ashwell, as you know, S.B. 90 restricts access to mail-
in ballots as it imposes stringent ID requirements and reduces 
the amount of time that a voter can remain on the State's vote-
by-mail list.
    Could you describe what the actual impact of limiting 
access to mail-in ballots is? And could you focus a little bit 
on Latinos' access to mail-in ballots?
    Mr. Ashwell. Sorry, what was the last part of your 
question? I didn't----
    Ms. Leger Fernandez. What is the actual impact of limiting 
access to mail-in ballots, particularly for Latinos?
    Mr. Ashwell. Oh, Latinos. Thank you for the question.
    You know, Black and Latino voters used vote-by-mail last 
election cycle in, I would say, record rates. You know, vote-
by-mail has been very popular in Florida, very successful. We 
have had it for a very long time. There haven't been problems.
    Black and Latino voters used it at twice the rate last 
election that they had in previous cycles. And, you know, it 
doesn't seem like a coincidence that we saw this wave of 
efforts to restrict the vote-by-mail process immediately follow 
that.
    Our concern is that, you know, these new restrictive laws, 
in conjunction with just the waves of misinformation that are 
coming, particularly misinformation targeting Latino voters, 
are going to discourage those voters or--discourage them, at 
the very least, from using vote-by-mail.
    Which, in the face of a pandemic, it was a very hard lift 
to convince a lot of folks who haven't traditionally used vote-
by-mail that it was a safe and legitimate way to vote.
    So, it was successful. Even the Governor acknowledged that, 
before he did his about-face and said that we needed to pursue 
a slew of election-integrity laws.
    But, we are particularly concerned about some of the--you 
know, it is hard to look at any of these provisions in 
isolation. One of the provisions that seems directly to target 
Latino voters is a list-maintenance provision that will require 
the DHSMV to provide noncitizen data to the State monthly. This 
is historically flawed data, and it is not really set up to 
accurately capture newly naturalized citizens.
    Chairman Butterfield. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Ashwell. Yes.
    Chairman Butterfield. The gentlelady's time has expired, 
regrettably.
    Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you. I yield back.
    Chairman Butterfield. At this time, the Chair is pleased to 
recognize the gentlelady from the Third District of Florida. 
Mrs. Cammack, it is your turn, five minutes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Well, thank you so much to all our witnesses 
for appearing here today. This is such an important topic.
    And I have to say, you guys came to the right place. If you 
want to know how to do elections right, the Sunshine State has 
a great example. I mean that both literally and figuratively.
    I am going to direct my first question to Supervisor 
Anderson. I want to thank you for being here today and 
representing the great work that Florida has done with our 
election laws.
    Now, we knew back in 2000 that Florida needed to make some 
important changes to its election laws. No one can forget the 
infamous hanging chads.
    Now, can you highlight for us the major changes that were 
made and demonstrate now why Florida is the gold standard for 
elections, just summarizing the key changes and why these are 
so important for every State to implement.
    Mr. Anderson. Absolutely. I will say that, to remain at the 
tip of the spear in elections in security and in 
administration, we have to take a proactive response. And I 
believe that is what the State of Florida is doing.
    The things that we have done to improve in 2020, or since 
2000: adding a no-excuse vote-by-mail option. That means that 
you can request a ballot be sent to you; you can request that 
ballot be sent to another location, if you send in written 
authorization with your original signature. So, you can go on 
vacation and say, ``Hey, Chris, I will be here. Can you send my 
ballot here?'' We did that many, many different times in 2020.
    Early voting. You have a maximum of 14 days, 12 hours a 
day--you know, I broke that down in hours. I like to give 
people a good understanding of how it really, really works. So, 
you have during the general election 168 hours of early voting. 
You can vote-by-mail 792 hours. You have 12 hours of voting on 
Election Day. You have a total of 970 hours to cast a ballot in 
the general election. That is quite a long time.
    I believe that voters in Florida make sure that voting is a 
priority and they come out and vote. And we have seen that with 
the amount of turnout that we had.
    Mrs. Cammack. That is awesome. Thank you, Mr. Anderson.
    I can assume, based on your testimony and your previous 
answers to questions, that you believe that a picture ID of 
some sort is required to vote, yes, or no?
    Mr. Anderson. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Same question to you, Commissioner Holt. Yes 
or no, do you believe that a photo ID should be required to 
vote?
    Ms. Holt. Yes. I think it should be a Social Security card 
with a picture on it.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you.
    Mr. Ashwell, yes or no, do you believe that a photo ID 
should be required to vote?
    Mr. Ashwell. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you.
    Ms. Scoon--I hope I am saying that right.
    Ms. Scoon. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you. Yes, you do believe a photo ID is 
required to vote?
    Ms. Scoon. Yes, I do.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you so much.
    And, Ms. Bennette, do you believe that a photo ID should be 
required to vote?
    Ms. Bennette. Yes, some form of identification.
    Mrs. Cammack. A photo ID.
    Ms. Bennette. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you so much.
    Ms. Bennette, I am going to stay with you. To paraphrase, 
in your testimony you state that Federal action is needed to 
prevent Florida from suppressing the vote. Is that correct?
    Ms. Bennette. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. So, stick with me on this hypothetical. If 
President Trump were still in office, would you want the Trump 
DOJ tasked with enforcing election law?
    Ms. Bennette. Yes.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you.
    And, Ms. Scoon, what election-integrity safeguards do the 
League of Women Voters in Florida support?
    Ms. Scoon. Well, we have been supportive, and we are some 
of the proponents to support the ERIC, which is a way of the 
States talking to each other and checking to make sure that 
people are not double-voting. We have testified about support 
of ERIC, and we were glad when the State supported it. And then 
we asked for funding for it.
    So that is one of the things that we have done.
    Mrs. Cammack. Thank you. I, too, support the ERIC system. I 
think it is a commonsense measure to safeguard our elections 
and make them more secure.
    You know, I could go through a litany of questions that I 
have listed out here today, but I am short on time, so I will 
say this. I think Florida has gotten it right from many years 
of doing it wrong. And this should not be a Republican-versus-
Democrat issue; this is an American issue.
    So, I would hope that, instead of chasing political 
agendas, we can chase truth and we can chase after a way and 
continuing to bolster election security, so that everyone goes 
to the ballot box knowing that their vote is being counted as 
cast and intended.
    So, I am appreciative of the Committee for being in the 
Sunshine State today and thank you to our witnesses for 
appearing.
    I yield.
    Chairman Butterfield. And we thank you as well for joining 
us.
    At this time, I will recognize my friend Mr. Lawson for 
five minutes.
    Mr. Lawson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to 
participate in this discussion.
    I think my first question will go to Mr. Ashwell, because 
he alluded to it.
    Out of nearly 11 million participants in Florida's 2020 
election, the Florida Department of State received 262 
complaints of election fraud and found reason to refer only 75 
cases to law enforcement, which is less than 1/1,000th of a 
percent.
    In Florida, Senate Bill 524 recently passed, which created 
a new Office of Election Crime and Security. This office is 
responsible for conducting inquiries into alleged election 
crimes and allowing the Florida Governor to appoint his own 
special officers in every region of offices in the State 
Department of Law Enforcement.
    Can you speak on how election police units could give 
partisan and State politicians control over how elections are 
conducted and scrutinized? And do you think this approach of 
election security will open the door for voter intimidation and 
harassment of nonpartisan election administrators trying to do 
their job?
    Mr. Ashwell. Well, thank you for the question. There is a 
lot to say there.
    So, as far as giving partisan officials more of a role in 
tracking election problems or addressing election problems or 
violations of law, this office sits directly under the 
Secretary of State. She is overseeing--or he is overseeing it 
now. And our Secretary of State--I mean, it really gets at a 
fundamental issue with the structure of our Secretary of 
State's office.
    We had an elected Secretary of State up until 2000. I think 
a lot of us remember what happened in 2000 in Florida with 
Katherine Harris. We went to an appointed secretary of state. 
So that Secretary of State is appointed by the Governor and 
serves at that Governor's pleasure. It is very much an 
instrument of the Governor. And this law enforcement office is 
directly under it.
    I think it is also important to point out that, in Florida 
this past session, this wasn't the only significant law 
enforcement entity created. You know, our legislature gave our 
Governor twice the funding he asked for to reinstitute or 
reactivate a State Guard. So, a lot of us have questions about 
how this new office can work in conjunction with this new State 
Guard that the Governor has access to.
    And, I think after the last election a lot of us are on 
guard as to how this entity could be used to challenge results, 
how it could be used to challenge the--you know, it could be 
used to build evidence to challenge the certification of 
results at the local or State level, maybe create the momentum 
to overturn them.
    And that is no longer a far-out possibility. That is very 
much on the table and something we are concerned that can 
happen if there is a contentious race--say, the U.S. Senate 
race. It is very competitive this cycle. If it didn't go the 
right way for the Governor and his party, we could see him 
using every instrument at his disposal, as we saw the President 
do this past cycle at the Federal level.
    We are very concerned about just how this office can be 
used to perpetuate the myth that we have insecure elections, 
how it can be used to just undermine the specific results in 
counties or at the State level.
    And, I think the fact that this is being looked at as a 
model for other States is very disturbing. This is not a model. 
We really hope other States do not follow Florida's lead on 
this.
    Mr. Lawson. Okay.
    And, reclaiming my time, I am going to ask Ms. Holt, could 
she speak to that.
    Ms. Holt. Yes.
    In 2000, I was chair of the local Democratic Party, and we 
were the only county in the State of Florida that filed a 
complaint with the Secretary of State's office, Katherine 
Harris, and spoke to Mr. Clayton about irregularities in our 
voting office election over in Gadsden County, because people 
were not allowed to vote. They were--we noticed that there were 
complaints about the voting machines and those type of things.
    We filed a complaint with the Secretary's office. They sent 
a gentleman over that came over to monitor the election, and he 
did not--he did not contest anything that happened during that 
election, including the Supervisor of Elections sending people 
away.
    So that office has some irregularities. So, I would think 
that we would want that office elected by the people, the 
Secretary's office, and have something in there.
    The term ``elections police'' is intimidating because the 
citizens don't know if there are going to be officers at the 
polling place. There are several things they do not know about 
this process. To do that during an election year is 
intimidating also.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Lawson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back my time.
    Chairman Butterfield. The gentleman yields back. And thank 
you very much, Mr. Lawson.
    We now will go to Miami-Dade, Florida, to the 26th 
Congressional District, the very distinguished gentleman from 
Miami-Dade, who I am assuming is a supporter of the Miami Heat. 
They are in a 2-2 tie right now, and they head to Boston on 
Friday, so we will see.
    But take it away, Carlos.
    Mr. Gimenez. Yes, I am, I am supportive of the Miami Heat. 
I think we play here tonight, so go Heat.
    In any event, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for 
allowing me to participate.
    The reason I am on is that I used to be the Mayor of Miami-
Dade County. During the 2020 election, as the Mayor, I was also 
the Supervisor of Elections. So, I know exactly how and what 
kind of elections we conducted here in Miami-Dade, and I can 
tell you that we had record numbers of people voting.
    We issued a note, a postcard, to every single household 
that had a voter in it in Miami-Dade, reminding them they could 
request an absentee ballot. We got record numbers of absentee 
ballots that were requested, and we had a record number of 
absentee ballots that were cast during the Presidential 
election of 2020.
    Now, Miami-Dade, this is not the Miami-Dade of 2000. The 
Miami-Dade of 2022, the Elections Department is completely 
different. We learned from our past. And I can say, I can 
honestly say, that we are probably--we are the model, okay, for 
not only the State of Florida but probably for the rest of the 
Nation. We pride ourselves in open and fair elections here in 
Miami-Dade, with record number of participants. And we are a 
very diverse community. We are a majority-minority community 
here in Miami-Dade County.
    And the way we conducted our elections, we have drop boxes 
for the, you know, first time in history. And I know there has 
been a lot of talk about drop boxes and access to drop boxes. 
Here in Miami-Dade, the drop boxes were at our early-voting 
sites. They were all monitored, so that there was always--an 
employee of the Elections Department was always overseeing the 
drop boxes and what was being put in it, which secured that 
drop box.
    I also must remind everybody that, as far as absentee 
ballots are concerned, there are drop boxes that are open 24 
hours a day, 7 days a week. They are called United States 
Postal Service mailboxes, all right? That is where absentee 
ballots are supposed to be dropped off. Only when you don't 
have confidence in the United States Postal Service is when you 
go to a drop box and drop it off yourself.
    Also, there are these people, these individuals, that come 
by your house, or they come by your apartment or your ALF; they 
are called United States postal workers. They will pick up your 
absentee ballot and take it to the Elections Department.
    One great thing that we do here also in Florida is that we 
count our absentee ballots as they come in. We don't divulge 
the number, but what that does, it allows us to have a count 
very early on as to what is happening. The only ones that we 
don't count, or that we must count as they come in, are the 
ones that come in on Election Day.
    We don't accept any absentee ballots after 7 o'clock, that 
reach our Elections Department after 7 o'clock. They are not 
valid. The individuals had over a month to get these ballots 
in. So, I am sorry if you think that that is, you know, 
limiting access, but that is a pretty good amount of time to 
get your ballot in.
    And so, what that does, it allows Miami-Dade County and the 
State of Florida to count the ballots probably much quicker 
than anybody else, and we don't have this issue of having to 
wait weeks to figure out who won the election.
    And so, if the rest of the country would actually follow 
our lead, we could probably find out who the President of the 
United States is by early morning, maybe, you know, early 
morning the next day at the latest, instead of having to wait 
weeks and weeks and weeks to figure out all these ballots that 
may be coming in from all over the place, which I think it is 
really--that is wrought--could be wrought with fraud, all 
right?
    And so that is why we do things this way in Miami-Dade 
County and in the State of Florida. Frankly, I believe we are 
the gold standard, and if the rest of the Nation followed our 
lead, the great State of Florida, I think that the issue of 
election integrity would be put to bed.
    We do have a very secure election system here in the State 
of Florida and with very, very few complaints. You didn't hear 
people saying, gee, I really couldn't get to a polling place; 
gee, I really couldn't drop off my absentee ballot; gee, I 
couldn't, you know, give it to my post office worker. It just 
didn't happen. Because, frankly, much of the rhetoric about 
access and somehow, we are restricting voting is just that--it 
is rhetoric.
    And it runs counter to what this Committee wants to do, 
which is to create confidence in our election system. And I can 
tell you with 100 percent accuracy, there is confidence in 
Florida State's election system.
    And, with that, I yield back. Thank you very much.
    Chairman Butterfield. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman 
yields back. And thank you for your testimony and thank you for 
your questions.
    All right. I guess it is my turn.
    I think in the opening statement I recall Mr. Steil--and 
let's get the clock started--Mr. Steil referred to the election 
yesterday in Georgia. He mentioned that it was an incredibly 
large turnout, and it was. Aside from watching what was 
happening down in Texas last night, I did switch over and look 
at the news coming out of Georgia, and it was an incredible 
turnout.
    I heard Mayor Gimenez a minute ago talk about the record 
number of people who vote in Florida. And as a former lawyer 
and--well, I am still a lawyer, but as a former judge and 
lawyer, let me use a legal term. I stipulate--I stipulate that 
we are beginning to see very, very large turnouts, and it is 
attributable to many, many different factors.
    But just because you have high turnout doesn't mean that 
bad laws aren't barriers to voting. I want to put that into the 
record. Overcoming barriers and casting a ballot does not mean 
that these barriers don't exist, and it doesn't make them fair. 
And so, yes, we need to have large turnouts, but we also need 
to remove any potential that may get in the way of people 
voting.
    I am also very interested in the testimony that I have 
heard today about the elections police. That has just piqued my 
curiosity. It is different, it is novel, and probably 
unnecessary in Florida, given the statistics that I have heard 
coming out of this State. There is not widespread fraud, voter 
fraud, in Florida. There is not in my State. I guess there are 
sprinklings of fraud in every State in the Union, but local 
police, the State bureaus of investigation and local law 
enforcement are very capable of handling those. And why the 
State of Florida needs to create elections police--it seems to 
be politicizing this more than it needs to be.
    And so, I guess I want to start with Ms. Bennette. You 
mention it in your testimony. What do these people do? These 
twenty-some elections, what are they--first, let me clear one 
thing up. Do they show up at the polling places? I hope not. 
Let's clear that up.
    Ms. Bennette. So, as Brad mentioned in his testimony, so 
the law enforcement--currently now, law enforcement receives 
complaints or certain things that come to them and then they 
investigate them. The issue we have with the elections--the 
Office of Election Crimes is that it is not necessarily clear 
how and what they will investigate--quote/unquote, ``election 
irregularities.''
    And, throughout the legislative session, different members 
tried to really bring out what this would encompass, and so----
    Chairman Butterfield. Would they wear uniforms?
    Ms. Bennette. It is not clear exactly what----
    Chairman Butterfield. You don't know. Will they be paid 
taxpayer money?
    Ms. Bennette. They are paid. The combined office as well as 
the police force, the additional law enforcement, cost is 
estimated $3.7 million for these two efforts combined.
    Chairman Butterfield. It seems to be very, very 
unnecessary.
    Let me go to you, Ms. Scoon. You note in your testimony 
that the redistricting process has historically been 
manipulated, often to the detriment of marginalized communities 
and especially African American voters.
    When minority voting power is diluted, and diluted on 
purpose, what is the long-term impact on minority communities?
    Ms. Scoon. Well, it reinforces that voting and minority 
communities don't go together. Because of the history of 
intentional discrimination and violence against Black voters 
that has been taught and passed down in our families, when you 
have election police, when you have redistricting that limits 
the voice of African Americans, it reinforces that maybe they 
shouldn't even participate, it is all done, it is kind of 
fixed, the fix is in.
    Chairman Butterfield. Sure.
    Mr. Ashwell, in your testimony, you mentioned confusion 
among voters and groups who communicate with voters regarding 
several pieces of S.B. 90 and S.B. 524.
    As Florida approaches its first election since each of 
these laws were enacted, what impact could confusion have among 
voters, groups who conduct voter outreach, and election 
administrators? How will it influence Floridians' access to the 
ballot?
    Mr. Ashwell. Well, at a macro level, it will create--or 
discourage participation. Confusion just leads people, some 
people who are on the fence, to just throw up their hands.
    But I think, more specifically, the vote-by-mail ID 
requirement, for example, which is on the request for vote-by-
mail ballots here, it is easy to see where that could lead to 
some people not getting their vote-by-mail ballots. I kind of 
went into depth on that in my testimony. But, I mean, it is 
easy to see where thousands, tens of thousands of voters who 
requested a vote-by-mail ballot might not get it, they might 
not get notified, and they might not realize it in time.
    And we get--through nonpartisan election-protection 
efforts, we have been getting a myriad of questions about vote-
by-mail over the last several years, a lot of basic things that 
you just wouldn't think about. So, all of these little pieces--
you know, the new timeline for vote-by-mail requests, new ID 
requirements, new voter assistance limits with vote-by-mail, 
drop box changes, even just changing the name of the drop box--
you know, I don't know if anybody has mentioned that.
    One of the pieces of S.B. 524 was that they rename drop 
boxes ``secure ballot intake stations,'' which seems--you know, 
at least they kept them. But all these little changes are going 
to confuse people, particularly people who aren't used to using 
or maybe are using vote-by-mail for the first time.
    The list-maintenance changes, a lot of those can cause 
confusion if people are wrongly removed and they don't realize 
it in time before the book closing to correct or update their 
registration information.
    The Office of Election Crimes, in general, as other 
panelists have said, the name--I believe Ms. Holt said it--the 
name is intimidating.
    So, it is hard to separate voter confusion and 
intimidation. I think those two concepts go hand-in-hand here. 
And it is all going to just----
    Chairman Butterfield. I believe my time has expired.
    Mr. Ashwell. Thank you. I am sorry.
    Chairman Butterfield. Yes. You have answered it very well.
    And, Ms. Holt, I am sorry I didn't get to you on the whole 
question of elections police. But I hope that the NAACP will 
take a position on it and let us know what your views are.
    Ms. Holt. Okay.
    Chairman Butterfield. On the surface of it, it does not 
sound like a good idea.
    Ms. Holt. It is not.
    Chairman Butterfield. All right.
    I thank the witnesses for their valuable testimony today, 
and thank the Members for their questions.
    The Members of the Subcommittee may have additional 
questions for these witnesses, and, if so, we will ask you to 
respond to those questions in writing. The hearing record will 
be held open for those responses.
    Chairman Butterfield. Again, thank you to our hosts here at 
City Hall.
    Thank you to my very good friend, Congressman Al Lawson, he 
wanted to come pick me up at 9:30 last night, Ms. Holt----
    Ms. Holt. He did?
    Chairman Butterfield [continuing]. For dinner. I said, no, 
we can do breakfast tomorrow morning.
    And thank you to the people of Florida.
    Without objection, this Subcommittee on Elections stands 
adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:33 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
      

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