News Release

Senate Bill 524 Election Law Changes

Indian River County, FL – Senate Bill 524 was signed into law on April 25, 2022. This brought with it changes to the election law. The Supervisor of Elections office wants to highlight some of the changes from SB524.

      • Creates the Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to aid the Secretary of State in completion of his or her existing duties related to investigation of election law violations or election irregularities.

      • Increases to $50,000 from $1,000 the annual cap on fines assessed against a third-party voter registration organization that does not timely deliver completed voter registration applications.

      • Creates a new penalty that provides that if a person collecting applications on behalf of an organization is found guilty of altering an application without consent, the organization is subject to a fine of $1,000 per altered application.

      • Increases criminal penalties for ballot harvesting and crimes related to ballot petition signatures.

      • Expands a criminal penalty for early disclosure of election results and requires authorized observers of vote-by-mail ballot duplication to sign an affidavit acknowledging they are subject to the penalty.

      • Increases the frequency with which list maintenance must be conducted.

      • Revises options supervisors of elections may use for identifying change-of-address information. 

      • Specifies voter addresses that supervisors of elections must use in conducting list maintenance activities.

      • Requires an inactive voter to confirm his or her current address of legal residence before being restored to active status.

      • Expands the prohibition against the use of private donations for election-related expenses to apply to any kind of expense, including but not limited to the costs of related litigation.

      • Conforms the mailing and canvassing timeframes for all-mail-ballot elections to those for vote-by-mail ballots in regular elections.

      • Prohibits the use of ranked-choice voting in any election in the state and preempts any conflicting local ordinances.

      • Revises “drop box” terminology to “secure ballot intake station”.

For more information on Senate Bill 524, visit flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/524.

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