Elections

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Westside Conservative Club Breakfast, Wednesday, March 29, 2023, in Urbandale, Iowa.

New legislation passed during the 2023 session and signed into law by Governor DeSantis makes a host of changes to election law in the state. Part of S.B. 7050 significantly restricts how third-party voter registration organizations like the League of Women Voters of Florida can operate. In response, the League of Women Voters of Florida is suing Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Secretary of State Cord Byrd, seeking to block provisions of the new omnibus election law that would restrict and penalize the organization’s civic engagement efforts.

Voting-rights groups want a full federal appeals court to take up a fight about whether a 2021 Florida elections law made changes that discriminated against Black voters.Attorneys for the Florida NAACP and Florida Rising Together filed a 41-page petition last week asking the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear a challenge to the law. The request came after a divided panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court last month overturned much of a district judge’s ruling against the law.

Collier County Supervisor of Elections Jennifer Edwards retires mid-term on Friday, April 28 after more than 20 years on the job.

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd is backing a House bill to revamp elections laws.

The Lee County Elections Lehigh Acres Branch Office is at the East Lee County Government Center, 600 Homestead Road S #9, and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The mayor and vice mayor of Sanibel Island both won new terms on the city council in Tuesday's elections. And a retired police officer won a seat on the village council in Estero.

Changes in election laws in 2021 affected vote-by-mail requests. One request for a vote-by-mail ballot will cover all elections through the end of the calendar year of the next scheduled general election.

Three state-wide amendments are up for consideration by Florida voters including prohibiting flood resistance improvements to a home from being taken into consideration for property tax purposes, abolishing the Constitution Revision Commission, and a proposal to grant property tax breaks to some public service workers and teachers who own homes, valued at certain amounts.

Southwest Florida voters will decide on a number of school board seats as well as choose if the next Lee County school superintendent will be appointed or elected.