"BECAUSE WE ARE WATCHING"

Created multiple one-pagers- List Maintenance, Vulnerable Voters, Grassroots Legislation Influencers, Rules Procedures….

Legislation/Rules- Successfully advocated modifying and updating Florida Statutes:

1. ERIC- Removed Florida from ERIC via statewide campaign.
2. Vote-by-Mail (VBM)
   • SB 90    Over-the-Counter Ballots Renewing VBM- 2021 limited the duration of requests for vote-by-mail ballots (101.69 Canceling a VBM Ballot) 
   • Rules - VBM Over-the-Counter Ballots- New Procedure
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   • Prevented election vulnerabilities by discontinuing the use of VBM ballots as voter guides at polling sites. (101.69 Canceling a VBM Ballot) 
3. Harassment Bills - Blocked the “Harassment Bill” two years in a row (which threatened poll watchers’ ability to observe election process) utilizing data from records requests to verify harassment and violence is not an issue in Florida. Statewide team members collect incident reports via records request from SOE throughout the state.  Results - No significant issues of harassment nor threats of violence.   Left-wing propaganda to persuade people not to vote in person and to be hypervigilant and anxious if choosing to vote in-person.  This was a national push by the Left and most states passed a form of this type of Harassment Bill limiting public access and poll watching abilities to observe the election process. 
4. Signature Match- Team members reported inconsistencies in Signature Match training and verification process.  ISB 7050 updated the signature match policy and procedures to reflect a uniform process throughout the state. 
   • Reviewed voert signatures for several elections; observed issues such as computer generated signatures, handful of ballots with same 'purple' pen, same designated request person brought to the SOE offices' attention and issues were resolved. 
   • Given concerns about the potential for identity theft and the ability to forge signatures, we are recommending the adoption of a 2-step verification process for voter authentication.
5. Voter Roll Clean-up – Removed ineligible registrations from voter rolls: deceased, invalid addresses, inactive voters…
6. County Voter Registration Report – (Sample Report) – Created a monthly report that highlighted voter roll updates in each county to include Voter Registration Anomalies.
7. Voter Intent- Team members reported irregularities in the methodologies SOEs use statewide to determine voter intent. The Rules Committee discussed the issues and generated an updated manual. 
8. Candidate Nicknames on Ballots 99.0215 Name of candidate.— Referencing Florida Statutes successfully removed fictitious 'nickname' on ballot without the aid of a lawyer.
9. Rules- Signature Match- 2024  After observing discrepancies in signature matching procedures between counties across Florida, our team engaged in the rule-making process through actions such as sending emails, participating in rules meetings, and reviewing current policies of Supervisor of Elections offices. Our concerted efforts to standardize signature matching training, policies, and procedures across all Supervisor of Elections offices were successful.
10. Voter Cancellation Forms - After highlighting to several Supervisor of Elections offices that the voter cancellation form was hard to locate, which is crucial for updating voter rolls when people move out of state, many offices responded by making the form more accessible on their websites. This adjustment helps ensure that voter rolls remain accurate and up-to-date. 
11. 2024 Rules - Felons Voting Rights- To ensure that only eligible citizens vote, our team contributed to the rulemaking process for reinstating voter rights for felons. We argued that felons should prove their eligibility, not the Secretary of State, to prevent ineligible felons from inflating and complicating voter rolls, and to avoid using taxpayer money for verification costs. Consequently, the rules now require felons convicted of murder or sexual offenses to provide an Executive Order or a Certificate from the Office of Executive Clemency, with documentation dated for each conviction.
12. Blank Ballots- Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner defined the term blank ballots.

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    Election Accomplishments
13. Poll Watcher- Training and Resources - Networked across the state to increase the number of poll watchers and workers.  Created statewide Poll Watcher training and observation checklists based on Florida Statutes, previous observations and poll worker training.  
    Trained:
    • Hillsborough over 500 volunteers
    • Statewide (waiting on data)
    • Observed and resolved Issues- New VBM procedure, workers' talking politics, workers' timecard issues, provisional ballots in tabulators... 
14. Poll Workers- 
    • Each county actively recruited poll workers
    • Established poll worker networks
    • Diversified poll worker teams throughout the state increasing representation of political parties that had previously been underrepresented.
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15. Created List Maintenance Resource Flowchart to help the team better understand the voter roll ‘clean-up’ process.
    -Voter Rolls- 2021 began to submit lists of deceased voters on rolls (now clerk of court sends over list daily/weekly per statute), worked on non-residential voters, nursing homes residence, PO Boxes…. 
    -Supported new legislation that removed inactive voters. 
    -Hillsborough- Removed inactive voters     2023:0,    2024:54,878
    -Statewide removed 586,915   

Notes:
- After tabulating the ballots at polling locations, Hillsborough uses Clear Ballot to confirm the counts. Clear Ballot is a tabulating software separate from the Tabulators at the polling sites. 
- In Hillsborough, despite increased efforts and the distribution of voter guides over 101,000 voters, left the school board race blank in the general election. This illustrates a continuing challenge in engaging voters effectively in all aspects of the ballot. This race had the highest number of ballots with people leaving the ballot blank. 

EAVS Data