Elections Bill Clears Senate Budget Committee

After defeating amendments from Democrats designed to weaken the bill, Republicans passed SB 2086 through the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday, clearing its way to the Senate floor.

The bill eliminates one week of the current two-week early voting period and prevents voters who move to another county from changing their address at the polling place on Election Day. Democrats say it is a partisan bill designed to prevent students who move away for college from voting.

"To me it's just a darn shame that we're disenfranchising people from voting," said Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, whose amendments -- reinstating the two-week early voting period and increasing the number of hours polling places are open during early voting -- failed.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, fought back against the charges of disenfranchising voters, noting that people still would have plenty of opportunities to vote.

"Most of the early voting takes place in the last week. It hasn't increased voter turnout. What it has done is increase the cost of elections," Diaz de la Portilla said.