Republican Governor Ron DeSantis from Florida this week announced a new special state office that will exclusively deal with claims of election crimes, and he warned that people with the idea of ballot box fraud should think again.
The Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security will be started during the upcoming Florida legislative session starting in January.
While Florida’s elections normally run smoothly, DeSantis said this week, during the anniversary of the 2020 presidential election, that voter fraud won’t be tolerated in his state. Should the office be formed, Florida election and police officials who suspect election crimes will have a specialized unit to deal with them immediately.
“We are excited to report that in the next legislative session we are introducing another program of election integrity reforms that will cause Florida to be the number one state for safe elections,” DeSantis said while giving comments in West Palm Beach.
“I am excited that thanks to this law, Florida will be able to enforce election crimes, fight voter fraud and ensure violators are kept accountable,” he said. “If violators know they will be kept accountable, they will be a lot less likely to commit these crimes in the first place.”
Election integrity is a top priority in Florida, which is why I am calling on the Florida Legislature to take additional steps to safeguard our elections. pic.twitter.com/jCd3ECPYFb
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 3, 2021
Florida Sec. of State Laurel Lee unveiled a website for the new election crimes unit that will launch soon. She also praised the work to make the state a trailblazer in preventing election crimes.
“In Florida, we are very fortunate to have good leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis who, since the very start of his administration, has took the lead on increasing Florida’s election security,” Lee said. “With the start of the Elections Integrity website, the public will have a good source for resources and information to fight against election fraud. We are committed to building more confidence in our election system and this website will help to boost that confidence.”
The website will give concerned citizens a place to report strange instances of fraud and might also make existing claims and their status with police available to view.
DeSantis warned that the punishment for disrupting election integrity will be severe.
“I guarantee everyone this: The first person caught, no one will want to do it again,” he said about his proposal, as reported by Just the News.
Author: Blake Ambrose
