In its quest to make voting as difficult and cumbersome as possible, Florida elections officials unilaterally canceled millions of standing requests from registered voters in the state to get mail-in ballots, a move Republicans claimed they made after the 2020 election to cut down on voter fraud that barely exists in the state, NBC News reports.

Florida voters could request an absentee ballot in a statewide election up to four years prior to the election.  A 2021 law cut that window to two years and did not accommodate requests that had already been put in for the 2024 election and automatically canceled requests made through 2022, meaning all those requests made to date for 2024 mail-in ballots are now void for the next election cycle and must be resubmitted.  Democrats are now scrambling to advise all impacted and help them reapply.

“It’s doing exactly what they intended it to do, which is suppress voters and take resources,” state Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said. “Instead of focusing our money, resources and time on other endeavors and talking to voters, we’re having to spend resources to get people back on the rolls.”

In 2020, more than 82% of Florida ballots were cast early and/or by mail, a convenience voters enjoyed due to the pandemic but which also increased voter participation, something Republicans hate because when more people vote, Democrats traditionally prevail.  Republican Florida governor and repugnant GOP presidential candidate has pushed through new laws to punish voters, including publicly shaming people who, he claims, voted illegally because they were felons even though they had been told by elections officials and/or their parole officers that they were eligible; the intended confusion was caused by DeSantis deciding he wasn’t going to honor a voter-passed referendum that allowed some felons who had completed their sentences to regain their rights to vote.

As part of the crackdown, DeSantis ordered the arrest–many times at gunpoint–of people he claims illegally voted.  DeSantis released police footage of the accused being arrested, with the vast number of these suspects being non-white.  Of the twenty arrested, one took a plea deal and at least three other cases were dismissed outright by the courts.