As part of national effort to defend voting rights, files friend-of-the-court brief supporting three separate challenges to SB 90

December 6, 2021 - OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in an amicus brief opposing Florida’s Senate Bill 90 (SB 90), which restricts access to voting by curtailing opportunities to vote by mail and limiting the use of ballot drop boxes. As part of a national effort to defend voting rights, the friend-of-the-court brief — filed in support of plaintiffs in three separate cases challenging SB 90 — highlights the amici states’ successful work across the country to simultaneously safeguard election integrity and expand voting rights.

“States across the country have consistently shown that you can expand access to voting and keep our elections secure,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The 2020 general election was no exception. Even in the middle of a pandemic, a record number of voters made their voices heard safely and securely through vote-by-mail. Bottom line: Florida’s new restrictions on voting are simply unnecessary and deeply concerning. We respectfully urge the court to allow these cases to go to trial. SB 90 deserves full scrutiny under the law.”

Signed into law on May 6, 2021, SB 90 sharply contracts voting opportunities in Florida. However, there is nothing about recent elections that justifies SB 90’s restrictions on voting by mail and drop boxes in future elections. In fact, there is no basis to conclude that voting by mail — or voting by drop box in particular — threatens election integrity. For instance, data collected by the Heritage Foundation from five states with universal mail-in voting found no evidence of widespread fraud out of the nearly 50 million general election votes cast between 1982 and 2019. Similarly, another analysis by the Washington Post of about 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections in universal vote by mail states Colorado, Oregon, and Washington also failed to uncover evidence of widespread voter fraud. Election and security experts have time and again voiced confidence in voting by mail. Numerous states, including California, have consistently and securely expanded methods for voters to cast their ballots beyond the traditional practice of visiting polling places on Election Day. During the ongoing pandemic, these options are more important than ever — and California has accordingly enacted legislation to permanently mail absentee ballots to every active registered voter in the state.

In the amicus brief, the coalition asserts, among other things:

• States have myriad ways to protect election integrity without stripping voters of reliable and safe voting methods;
• There is no evidence that mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes are associated with widespread fraud;
• SB 90 fails to address the complex issue of voter confidence; and
• Based on the current record and factual dispute, Florida’s purported interests in passing SB 90 should be put to trial.

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

A copy of the amicus brief is available here in League of Women Voters of Florida v. Lee; Florida Rising Together v. Lee; and Florida State Conference of the NAACP v. Lee.
Source: CA. DOJ