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An act relating to elections; creating s. 97.029, F.S.; prohibiting certain persons from settling certain actions, consenting to conditions, or agreeing to certain orders in certain circumstances; requiring certain persons to make certain legal challenges and move to dismiss or otherwise terminate a court’s jurisdiction in certain circumstances; creating s. 97.0291, F.S.; prohibiting certain agencies and state and local officials from soliciting, accepting, or otherwise using private funds for election-related expenses; providing for construction; amending s. 97.052, F.S.; revising requirements for the uniform statewide voter registration application; amending s. 97.0525, F.S.; requiring the Division of Elections to maintain a website for the online voter registration system; providing additional requirements for a biennial comprehensive risk assessment of the online voter registration system; amending s. 97.053, F.S.; revising requirements governing the acceptance of voter registration applications; amending s. 97.057, F.S.; requiring the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to assist the Department of State in identifying certain residence address changes; requiring the Department of State to report such changes to supervisors of elections; amending s. 97.0575, F.S.; revising requirements governing third party voter registration organizations; providing applicability; revising circumstances under which a third-party voter registration organization is subject to fines for violations regarding the delivery of voter registration applications; revising requirements for division rules governing third-party voter registration organizations; amending s. 97.0585, F.S.; deleting an exemption from public records requirements for information related to a voter registration applicant’s or voter’s prior felony conviction and his or her restoration of voting rights to conform to changes made by the act; amending s. 97.1031, F.S.; revising information that an elector must provide to a supervisor of elections when the elector changes his or her residence address, party affiliation, or name; amending s. 98.0981, F.S.; providing that certain ballot types or precinct subtotals may not be reported in precinct-level election results; requiring supervisors of elections to make certain data available on their websites and transmit such data to the division; requiring the division to create and maintain a certain dashboard; amending s. 99.012, F.S.; removing provisions relating to the method of filling a vacancy created by an officer’s resignation to qualify as a candidate for another public office; amending s. 99.021, F.S.; revising the oath for candidates seeking to qualify for nomination as a candidate of a political party; requiring a person seeking to qualify for office as a candidate with no party affiliation to subscribe to an oath or affirmation that he or she is registered without party affiliation and has not been a registered member of a political party for a specified timeframe; amending ss. 99.061 and 99.063, F.S.; conforming provisions to changes made by the act; amending s. 100.111, F.S.; revising the method of filling a vacancy in nomination for a political party; amending s. 101.051, F.S.; prohibiting certain solicitation of voters at drop box locations; increasing the no-solicitation zone surrounding a drop box location or the entrance of a polling place or an early voting site wherein certain activities are prohibited; conforming a provision; amending s. 101.131, F.S.; revising requirements for poll watcher identification badges; amending s. 101.545, F.S.; requiring ballots, forms, and election materials to be retained for a specified minimum timeframe following an election; amending s. 101.5605, F.S.; revising the timeframe within which the Department of State must approve or disapprove a voting system submitted for certification; amending s. 101.5614, F.S.; revising requirements for making true duplicate copies of vote-by-mail ballots under certain circumstances; requiring that an observer of the duplication of ballots be provided certain allowances; requiring that the duplication process take place in the presence of a canvassing board member; requiring a canvassing board to make certain determinations; amending s. 101.572, F.S.; requiring that voter certificates be open for public inspection; providing certain persons with reasonable access to ballot materials; requiring a supervisor to publish notice of such access; amending s. 101.591, F.S.; revising the timeframe and requirements for the voting systems audit report submitted to the department; amending s. 101.595, F.S.; requiring a specified report regarding overvotes and undervotes to be submitted with the voting systems audit report; revising the date by which the department must submit the report to the Governor and Legislature; amending s. 101.62, F.S.; limiting the duration of requests for vote-by-mail ballots to all elections through the end of the calendar year of the next regularly scheduled general election; requiring certain vote-by-mail ballot requests to include additional identifying information regarding the requesting elector; requiring supervisors of elections to record whether a voter’s certificate on a vote-by-mail ballot has a mismatched signature; revising the definition of the term “immediate family” to conform to changes made by the act; prohibiting counties, municipalities, and state agencies from sending vote-by-mail ballots to voters absent a request; specifying applicability of the act to outstanding vote-by-mail ballot requests; amending s. 101.64, F.S.; revising requirements for vote-by mail ballot mailing envelopes and secrecy envelopes; amending s. 101.68, F.S.; specifying that the supervisor may not use any knowledge of a voter’s party affiliation during the signature comparison process; authorizing the canvassing of vote-by-mail ballots upon the completion of the public preelection testing of automatic tabulating equipment; revising duties of the canvassing board with respect to protests; amending s. 101.69, F.S.; revising requirements governing the placement and supervision of secure drop boxes for the return of vote-by-mail ballots; requiring the supervisor to designate drop box locations in advance of an election; prohibiting changes in drop box locations for an election after their initial designation; specifying requirements regarding the retrieval of vote-by-mail ballots returned in a drop box; providing that the supervisor is subject to a civil penalty for certain violations regarding drop boxes; amending s. 102.031, F.S.; prohibiting certain solicitation activities within a specified area surrounding a drop box; expanding the definition of “solicit” and “solicitation”; providing for construction; restricting certain persons from prohibiting the solicitation of voters by a candidate or a candidate’s designee outside of the no solicitation zone; creating s. 102.072, F.S.; requiring the supervisor of elections to post and update on his or her website vote-by-mail ballot data at specified intervals; amending s. 102.141, F.S.; requiring the names of canvassing board members be published on the supervisor’s website before the tabulation of any vote-by-mail ballots in an election; authorizing each political party and candidate to have one watcher at canvassing board meetings within a distance that allows him or her to directly observe proceedings; requiring additional information be included in public notices of canvassing board meetings; amending s. 104.0616, F.S.; revising the definition of “immediate family”; prohibiting any person from distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering, or otherwise physically possessing more than two vote-by-mail ballots of other electors per election, not including immediate family members; providing exceptions; providing a penalty; providing an effective date.
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