TALLAHASSEE — Midway through the 2023 legislative session, Republican lawmakers Tuesday began advancing Gov. Ron DeSantis's sweeping elections package that would impose further restrictions on voter registration groups, create a new crime for harassing elections workers and relax campaign-finance reporting rules.

The Republican-controlled Senate Ethics and Elections Committee signed off on the measure (SPB 7050) in a party-line vote. The House has not released its version of the legislation.

Democrats on the Senate committee objected to the contents of the 98-page bill and to what they called a rush to take up the measure, which was released Monday.

When asked why the bill hadn’t been vetted earlier, committee Chairman Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, attributed the delay to “prudence,” adding that lawmakers have plenty of time to scrutinize the measure during the remaining half of the 60-day session.

The proposal is “very technical and mechanical,” Burgess said, noting the bill addresses changes in 43 sections of state elections laws.

“Collectively, I think that enhanced our responsibility to try to get it right. … So making sure all those machinations are working is really important, and I think prudence is kind of the operating word,” he said.

But Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, disagreed.

“This process was really pretty awful. If this bill was so benign, we would have seen it a lot earlier,” she said.

The proposal continues the GOP-led Legislature’s years-long effort to make it harder for third-party groups to register voters. Research has shown the groups are more likely to help Black, Hispanic and young people register.

“Every cycle … there’s additional issues that arise with these organizations, which is prompting the additional need for enhanced measures of protection,” Burgess said.

The groups currently have to register with the state, but under the proposal, they would have to re-register after every general election. The bill also would require the groups to provide receipts to people filling out voter-registration applications. The measure also would shorten a timeframe from 14 days to 10 days for the groups to deliver voter-registration applications to elections officials.

In addition, the bill could lead to third-degree felony charges if people collect voter-registration applications for the groups and keep personal information about voters.

And the proposal would double the aggregate amount of annual fines — from $50,000 to $100,000 — groups could face for failing to comply with the law.

The additional hurdles will “have a chilling effect” on registration organizations, Brad Ashwell, state director of All Voting is Local Action, told the Senate panel.

“These organizations are providing a service to the community. Instead of further penalizing and discouraging them, perhaps you could focus on creating more obligations for the state to register voters,” Ashwell said.

  Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, pointed to parts of the bill that would give elections officials the ability to remove voters from the rolls based on “official records,” which she said was not clearly defined.

“We don’t know what that is, and we are very fearful,” she said.

The measure would ban first-time Florida voters who don’t have state-issued driver’s licenses, identification cards or Social Security numbers from voting by mail. University of Central Florida student Patrick Burnette said that would make it harder for out-of-state college students to vote in Florida.

“The aim of this bill is clear in so many ways, but all of them are voter suppression,” Burnette said. He said college students have among the highest rates of using third-party groups to register to vote.

“Why are we targeting college voters? They’re younger. Who do younger people vote for? Who’s in charge of this chamber right now? Great question,” Burnette said, referring to Republican control.

The bill addresses myriad other issues, including voter address changes, the authority of the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security and requests for vote-by-mail ballots.

It also would ease campaign-finance reporting requirements for candidates and political committees. Under current law, candidates and committees have to file monthly reports during off-election years and until shortly after the campaign-qualifying period in election years. They have to file more-frequent reports closer to elections.

Under the bill, they would be able to file reports quarterly until qualifying time. At that point, they would resume the current reporting schedule.

The bill also would make it a felony to harass supervisors of elections and their employees, which Burgess said has become a nationwide issue.

“Threats and harassment of election workers has dramatically increased in recent years,” he said. “”Me personally, I think this is one of the good moves that we’re trying to make here.”

But Polsky indicated the bill was intended to make it harder for certain groups of people to vote.

“Every change I’ve seen in my five years in the Legislature has been intentional to hurt one party over the other, so there’s just not a lot of trust here,” she said. “I’m disappointed and embarrassed by this process.”

Polsky also said the measure does not do anything to help “returning citizens” determine if they are eligible to vote. Floridians approved a 2018 constitutional amendment that restored voting rights to people convicted of felonies, but the GOP-dominated Legislature passed a law requiring “returning citizens” to pay all court fees and fines related to their convictions to be eligible to vote. Confusion over eligibility has resulted in arrests of people who voted after receiving voter-registration cards from county elections officials.

Burgess, however, defended the bill, saying lawmakers have weeks to improve it.

“The bill does not become law today. This is the beginning of a process. … We will have more input to follow,” he said. “Florida is the gold standard for elections and we should be proud of that. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not proactive. It doesn’t mean that after you win the Super Bowl, you don’t watch the tape and improve.”

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this News Service of Florida story

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TALLAHASSEE — A key Senate committee Wednesday supported eliminating a requirement for unanimous jury recommendations before death penalty sentences can be imposed, but it backed giving judges discretion in making the ultimate decisions.

The Senate Rules Committee voted 15-4 to approve a bill (SB 450) that would allow death sentences to be imposed based on the recommendations of eight of 12 jurors — a standard that bill sponsor Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, described as being “the most aggressive of all 50 states.”

The bill is now ready to go to the full Senate, while a House version (HB 555) also has started moving through committees.

The issue of revamping death-penalty laws emerged after Nikolas Cruz last year received a life sentence for the murders of 17 students and faculty members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. The life sentence came after a Broward County jury did not unanimously recommend death.

Ingoglia said the state needs to move away from a requirement of unanimity because one “protest juror” could prevent death sentences.

“I believe that unanimity is a very, very high bar — too high of a bar,” Ingoglia told the Rules Committee.

But Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat who opposed the bill, said “unanimity is the right balance when death is the final penalty.” Rouson and other opponents pointed to cases where inmates have been exonerated after new evidence emerged in their cases.

“It’s hard to reverse an execution, and I think the current state of the law is sufficient,” Rouson said.

The committee approved a Ingoglia-backed change that would allow judges to sentence defendants to life in prison after receiving recommendations of death sentences from juries. In such instances, the judges would have to explain in written orders their reasons for deviating from the death-sentence recommendations.

An earlier version of Ingoglia’s bill would have required judges to impose death sentences if at least 10 jurors recommended death. Under that version, judges could have imposed death sentences with the recommendations of eight or nine jurors but also would have had the option of sentencing defendants to life in prison in such cases.

The bill would affect only the sentencing process and not what is known as the “guilt phase” of murder cases. Juries would still have to be unanimous in finding defendants guilty before sentencing could begin.

Florida long allowed judges to impose death sentences based on majority jury recommendations. But that changed after decisions in 2016 by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court.

  In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, ruled that the state’s death-penalty system was unconstitutional. To try to carry out the ruling, the Legislature quickly passed a measure that required 10-2 jury votes before death sentences could be imposed.

But in October 2016, in the similarly named case of Hurst v. State, the Florida Supreme Court interpreted and applied the U.S. Supreme Court ruling and said unanimous jury recommendations were required. The Legislature responded in 2017 by putting such a unanimous requirement in law.

After Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in January 2019, however, he made appointments that created a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. In 2020, the court reversed course and said unanimous jury recommendations were not needed — though the unanimous requirement has remained in law.

If the Legislature moves away from a unanimous-jury requirement, the change likely will face a constitutional challenge. Aaron Wayt, who represented the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on Wednesday, pointed to recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and said he thinks the proposal would be found unconstitutional.

Ingoglia, however, cited the 2020 Florida Supreme Court decision that said unanimous jury recommendations are not required. He also said advances in DNA technology are a “game changer” that would help prevent the execution of wrongfully convicted people.

Parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School victims, along with groups such as prosecutors, have supported changing the death-penalty law. But moving away from unanimity has been opposed by groups such as the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Debate and testimony at Wednesday’s meeting reflected the difficulty of the issue for many lawmakers. Committee Chairwoman Debbie Mayfield, R-Indialantic, supported the bill, but acknowledged that, as “a Catholic, this is really hard for me.”

Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Broward County Democrat, said she knows “first-hand the experience of the Parkland shooting and how it not only impacted Parkland but an entire county.” But like Rouson, she expressed concerns about getting rid of the unanimity requirement when people have been wrongfully convicted.

“I just don’t want to take a chance of getting it wrong or being wrong with death being so final with anyone,” Osgood said.

But Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, another Broward County Democrat, supported the bill and said it was a “horrific miscarriage of justice” that Cruz did not receive the death penalty.

“I believe that the horrific miscarriage of justice cannot go on,” Book said.

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A Florida statewide grand jury is urging lawmakers to curb the releases of undocumented immigrants from county jails. A presentment released Friday alleged that a law has been “intentionally and flagrantly abused,” resulting in the release of inmates who had been held in county jails under detainers issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The consequence has been that illegal aliens arrested for serious felony offenses, such as sexual battery on a minor, armed carjacking and aggravated battery have been able to secure release from custody, notwithstanding ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) requesting a hold for deportation proceedings,” the presentment said. A state law allows the lifting of holds in certain circumstances, such as when undocumented immigrants have been crime victims or witnesses, the presentment said.

But the grand jury said that without “sufficient oversight, this process allows the submission of an unsworn notice indicating that a statement exists where the jail inmate claims that they were a ‘victim’ of a qualifying offense under (the law), These ‘statements’ are often not challenged by anyone, nor are they corroborated or actually shared with the county jail.

In effect, unproven claims are being submitted and approved allowing county officials to disregard and lift ICE holds.” The grand jury called on the Legislature to delete that law and tighten another law that can lead to releases.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate who has long criticized federal immigration policies, requested impaneling the grand jury in June. The Supreme Court granted his request, with the grand jury impaneled in the 10th Judicial Circuit, which is made up of Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties.

Story by News Service of Florida

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TALLAHASSEE — Leading chants of “Black history is American history,” prominent civil-rights attorney Ben Crump on Wednesday threatened to sue Gov. Ron DeSantis over the state’s rejection of an African American studies course.

“The question really is this, brothers and sisters. Are we going to let Gov. DeSantis, or anybody, exterminate Black history from the classrooms in Florida?” Crump said during an event at the Capitol, flanked by Black lawmakers and three students who would be plaintiffs in a lawsuit.

Crump added, “We are here to give notice to Gov. DeSantis that if he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow AP (Advanced Placement) African American studies to be taught in the classrooms across the state of Florida, that these three young people will be the lead plaintiffs in an historic lawsuit.”

The controversy stems from a Jan. 12 letter from the state Department of Education’s Office of Articulation to a senior director at The College Board, which has developed the Advanced Placement African American studies course. The letter advised that the course wouldn’t be offered in Florida public schools unless changes were made.

Advanced Placement courses are college-level classes offered to high-school students.

The letter said the course “significantly lacks educational value.” The department later published an infographic outlining “concerns found within” the course, including topics such as “Black queer studies” and “the reparations movement.” Education officials also expressed concerns about several authors whose works would be a requirement within the course.

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter said.

The College Board released a statement this week saying that the organization plans to “release the official framework” for the course on Feb. 1, suggesting changes could come.

“This framework, under development since March 2022, replaces the preliminary pilot course framework under discussion to date,” the statement said. “Before a new AP course is made broadly available, it is piloted in a small number of high schools to gather feedback from high schools and colleges. The official course framework incorporates this feedback and defines what students will encounter on the AP Exam for college credit and placement.”

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat who spoke at Wednesday’s event, took issue with the governor influencing potential changes to the course.

“We’ve been told that this AP African American history course will be altered and resubmitted, and most likely they’ll make enough changes for the governor to approve it, but at what cost? Are we really OK with Ron DeSantis deciding what is acceptable?” Driskell said.

But DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, characterized the College Board’s statement as meaning changes to the course are imminent.

“Excellent news. Thanks to (DeSantis’) principled stand for education over identity politics, the College Board will be revising the course for the entire nation. The Florida Department of Education … will review the changes for compliance once resubmitted,” Griffin said in a tweet Tuesday.

The state’s rejection of the course has drawn national attention, including a rebuke from the Biden administration. Black religious leaders also are planning a Feb. 16 rally in Tallahassee to speak out on the issue.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said Florida’s rejection of the course speaks to a larger issue of racism in America.

“The fight is not just about this AP course. The fight is against the strong uprising of racism from people who are seeing the shifting of America,” Jones said. “While the full and accurate historical record might make some uncomfortable — good!”

--- News Service Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this Ryan Dailey report.

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Two Republican lawmakers filed proposals this week that would allow physicians to use telehealth to recertify medical-marijuana patients.

Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, filed the proposals (SB 344 and HB 387) for consideration during the legislative session that will start March 7.

Patients are required to receive in-person physical exams from physicians to get certified to use medical marijuana. Under current law, they also are required to be evaluated in person at least once every 30 weeks for recertification.

The bills, however, would allow recertification to be done through telehealth, which generally involves using online technology to provide care remotely.

In 2021, Rep. Roach penned an opinion for The Floridian, where he outlined the dangers of THC.

In 2016, Florida voters overwhelmingly expressed their desire for a safe and accessible medical marijuana program, and I am fighting to preserve the medical nature of the program that voters demanded.  What we have now is a recreational drug program masquerading as a medical marijuana program, and the long-term societal carnage attendant with unfettered access to high-potency THC demands legislative action.  That’s why I filed HB 1455.

THC is the psychoactive component in marijuana that produces the ‘high’ which, like other narcotics, causes cognitive impairment, deterioration of motor skills, and euphoria.  THC is highly addictive and many studies indicate a strong association with first-episode and chronic psychosis from frequent use of high-potency THC.  Perhaps more alarming are the effects on brain development in children:  impaired brain function, high probability of graduating to other ‘hard’ drugs, impairments in learning and IQ reduction, and earlier onset of schizophrenia.

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this News Service of Florida story.

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TALLAHASSEE --- Florida’s unemployment rate dipped to 2.5 percent in December as businesses continue to struggle to fill positions.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity released a report Friday that showed the December rate down from 2.6 percent in November and from 3.5 percent in December 2021. About 271,000 Floridians qualified as unemployed last month from a workforce of 10.76 million.

Meanwhile, businesses in Florida are advertising for 442,000 positions, down from 455,000 in December.

“Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has now remained under the national rate for 25 consecutive months,” Jimmy Heckman, the Department of Economic Opportunity’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, told reporters Friday.

In a news release, Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to a 3.5 percent increase in Florida’s workforce over the past year, topping a national increase of 1.6 percent

“Florida continues to outpace the nation and withstand negative headwinds due to federal policy,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement.

The national unemployment rate in December was 3.5 percent, representing 5.7 million people out of work, a drop of 278,000 from a year earlier.

“Under my plan to build an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, we’ve achieved the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, and 2021 and 2022 were the best years for job growth on record,” President Joe Biden said in a Twitter post Thursday.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reported Wednesday that employment nationally continues to show modest growth in most of the Fed’s 12 districts.

“While some districts noted that labor availability had increased, firms continued to report difficulty in filling open positions,” the report said. “Many firms hesitated to lay off employees even as demand for their goods and services slowed and planned to reduce headcount through attrition if needed.”

Florida’s workforce grew by 361,000 people from December 2021 to December 2022. The number of filled positions increased by 9,000 from November to December and by 93,000 from December 2021, according to Friday’s report.

Jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, which took the biggest hit when the COVID-19 pandemic crashed into the economy in 2020, saw the biggest gains from December 2021 to December 2022, increasing by 88,600. The next-biggest gains over the past year were in the category of education and health services, up 83,800 jobs, and the category of trade, transportation, and utilities, up 82,700 positions.

The state lost about 1.28 million jobs between February 2020 and April 2020 but has added back 1.78 million, according to the report.

Across the state, the lowest unemployment rates in December were in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin metropolitan statistical areas, both at 1.9 percent.

Next lowest was the Gainesville area at 2.0 percent.

The Jacksonville and Pensacola areas were both at 2.1 percent.

The highest marks were 3.6 percent in the Sebring area, 3.5 percent in the Homosassa Springs area and 3.4 percent in the area including The Villages.

The statewide unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while the regional rates are not.

Jim Turner is a reporter for News Service of Florida.

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Penalties for drivers who refuse to take breath-alcohol tests would be increased under a bill filed Thursday by a House Republican.

People who refuse to take the tests currently can have their driver’s licenses suspended for a year. They can face 18-month suspensions if they have previously had their licenses suspended or have been fined for previous refusals.

The bill (HB 197), filed Thursday by Rep. Traci Koster, R-Tampa, would add to those penalties. It would include a requirement that people who refuse breath tests the first time would face mandatory installation of ignition interlock devices in their vehicles for a year.

The devices would be installed for 18 months for drivers with previous refusals.

The devices require drivers to blow into them and will not allow vehicle engines to start if alcohol is detected. Under the bill, filed for the legislative session that will start March 7, drivers would have to pay for the installation of the devices.

A significant amount (most) defense attorneys instruct their clients or potential clients not to blow whenever they get pulled over for suspected DUI. The burden of proof falls on the courts.

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this News Service of Florida article.

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Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson on Tuesday announced a proposal that takes aim at credit-card companies separately categorizing sales at gun shops. During an appearance at Lawmen’s & Shooters’ Supply in Titusville, Simpson said the proposal is intended to prohibit financial institutions from collecting and monitoring information on Floridians’ firearm and ammunition purchases.

“Credit card companies are being told that they have to assign a code to gun sales and ammo sales at gun stores,” Simpson said. “They aren’t even hiding their purpose. They want to track, control, intimidate, and I believe ultimately take away the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.”

The proposal, which would require approval during the 2023 legislative session, is backed by state Sen. Danny Burgess, R- Zephyrhills, and Rep. John Snyder, R-Stuart, who joined Simpson on Tuesday. In September, Visa joined Mastercard and American Express in moving forward with plans to categorize gun shop sales, a step gun-control advocates say will help track any suspicious sales tied to potential mass shootings.

What is known as a separate “merchant category code” would be added to a list of purchase codes on sales made at retailers. Meanwhile Tuesday, Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, and Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, filed proposals (SB 146, SB 148, HB 151 and HB 153) that would require background checks on the sale or transfer of ammunition.

The measure is dubbed “Jaime’s Law, after 14-year old Jaime Guttenberg, one of 17 students and faculty members killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

News Service of Florida

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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and other plaintiffs will appeal the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging federal prohibitions on medical-marijuana patients buying and possessing guns, according to a court notice filed Wednesday.

Fried filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice this year. Plaintiffs include medical-marijuana patients and a gun owner, who allege that the prohibitions violate Second Amendment rights.

Federal laws bar certain people from buying and possessing guns, including people who use drugs illegally. The lawsuit alleged the federal prohibitions “forbid Floridians from possessing or purchasing a firearm on the sole basis that they are state-law-abiding medical marijuana patients.”

But U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, siding with the Justice Department, on Nov. 7 dismissed the lawsuit. Winsor’s ruling noted that Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 that broadly authorized medical marijuana use.

But the judge, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, cited the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause in saying that marijuana remains illegal, despite the Florida amendment.

“In 2016, Florida stopped criminalizing the medical use of marijuana. Many people refer to this change as Florida’s ‘legalizing’ medical marijuana, but Florida did no such thing.

It couldn’t. ‘Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, state laws cannot permit what federal law prohibits,’ and federal law still prohibits possession of marijuana — for medical purposes or otherwise,” Winsor wrote, partially quoting a legal precedent.

Fried was a medical-marijuana lobbyist before getting elected agriculture commissioner in 2018 and has been one of the state’s most-prominent supporters of medical cannabis.

She is Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat but will leave office in January after unsuccessfully running for governor this year.

As is common, Wednesday’s notice did not provide detailed arguments that will be made at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

News Service of Florida

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Floridians are still responding to the damages caused by Hurricane Ian.  The Florida state government has proved successful in a speedy recovery, and now massive gains are being seen in the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Medical examiners had confirmed 122 deaths from Hurricane Ian as of Friday, up from 114 a week earlier, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. A news release from the department said 60 of the confirmed deaths were in Lee County, where the Category 4 storm made initial landfall Sept. 28 before crossing the state. Charlotte, Collier and Sarasota counties each had eight confirmed deaths, while Monroe County had seven. Volusia County had five, while Hardee and Manatee counties each had four. In all, hurricane-related deaths had been confirmed in 18 counties.

As another sign of its explosive growth, the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has topped 1.1 million policies. Citizens had 1,107,033 policies as of Friday, up from 1,098,762 a week earlier and 1,090,508 two weeks earlier, according to the Citizens website. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen massive growth during the past two years as private insurers have dropped policies, and in some cases gone insolvent, amid financial losses. As a comparison, Citizens had 521,289 policies on Oct. 31, 2020, and 725,942 policies on Oct. 31, 2021.

Citizens' website in regard to Hurricane Ian states, "Citizens is committed to responding quickly to disasters and providing local services and support to policyholders in a crisis."

The Floridian Reporter Jim McCool contributed to this News Service of Florida story 

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Without about 1.94 million ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election, registered Democrats and Democrats were almost evenly divided as of Thursday morning. Registered Democrats had cast 786,425 ballots by mail or at early voting sites, while Republicans had cast 784,653, according to data posted on the state Division of Elections website.

Democrats held an advantage in mail-in ballots, while Republicans led at early voting sites. Meanwhile, unaffiliated voters had cast 342,045 ballots, and third-party voters had cast 26,882. Counties were able to start offering in-person early voting on Monday, with all counties required to offer it on Saturday.

Republicans hold an advantage over Democrats, and even though the two political parties are "neck and neck" at this juncture in the election, Republicans are expected to pull away from Democrats on Election Day. Republican voters have historically outperformed Democrats on Election Day.

Publisher Javier Manjarres added to this News Service of Florida story.

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