Tallahassee, FL — In yet another move designed to suppress voting, the Scott administration yesterday placed new restrictions on how voters can return absentee ballots. Pasco County’s Republican Supervisor of Elections, Brian Corley, says the measure is not “pro-voter” and gives him “great concerns.”

“For Florida voters, this is sinister deja vu. Last year, Rick Scott ordered a voter purge that overwhelmingly targeted African-Americans and Hispanics, a purge Supervisors eventually refused to implement. Scott’s signature voter suppression bill led directly to lower turnout and a national embarrassment in 2012. This summer, Rick Scott started a new voter purge that not a single Supervisor of Elections has agreed to implement,“ said Florida Democratic Party Chair Allison Tant. 

“Yesterday’s harsh new restrictions on absentee ballots confirm that Rick Scott will say or do anything to hang on to power. Rick Scott is simply anti-voter. Rick Scott and Secretary of State Ken Detzner should be ashamed for putting their partisan agenda ahead of the most sacred act in our democracy: voting. But they probably aren’t,“ added Tant. “We urge our Supervisors of Elections, regardless of party, to use their constitutional powers to ignore this latest voter suppression tactic from the Governor and instead be ‘pro-voter.’”