FL H1669

Restricts vote-by-mail eligibility by requiring voters to provide and attest to an allowed reason for requesting an absentee ballot, limited to being homebound/physically unable (with doctor's affidavit), out of state during the entire voting period, age 80 or older, or enrolled in an educational institution outside the county.

Establishes comprehensive chain of custody requirements for all ballots, including daily validation by county canvassing boards, unique 11+ digit serial numbers on every ballot and envelope, bipartisan transport by representatives of different major political parties, mandatory video surveillance of all ballot processing areas, and electronic badge access at storage and counting locations. If chain of custody breaches exceed the margin of victory in any race, the race is deemed invalid and a special election must be held.

Requires mandatory manual hand-count audits at multiple stages: daily cross-checks during early voting and absentee canvassing, post-close hand-count audits at precincts on election day, and postcertification procedural audits of all blank, under-voted, over-voted, provisional, and separated ballots. Hand-count results override machine counts when confirmed discrepancies are found.

Replaces machine recounts with manual recounts using original paper ballots, triggered when unofficial returns show a margin of ≤ 0.5%; raises the mandatory manual recount threshold for overvotes and undervotes from 0.25% to 1%; and creates a new candidate-requested full manual recount option when the margin is ≤ 2%, prohibiting the use of tabulators, voting equipment, or ballot images in lieu of original hand-marked paper ballots.

Creates a citizen-petitioned comprehensive audit process, requiring a petition signed by at least 5% of county voters, with auditors chosen by the petitioners, conducted in public view, covering all paper ballots, vote-by-mail envelopes, digital ballots, voter rolls, signature comparisons, and all equipment used in the election.

Requires vote-by-mail voters to include a copy of photo identification in a new identification envelope, with acceptable IDs including Florida driver's license, Florida ID card, U.S. passport, military ID, student ID, and other government-issued photo IDs; removes retirement center and neighborhood association IDs from the acceptable list. Establishes a two-tier identification system for curing signature deficiencies.

Expands poll watcher access by allowing political action committees and political committees to designate watchers, permitting watchers to come as close as "reasonably necessary" to officials and equipment, requiring each absentee ballot processing work area to accommodate at least four watchers plus two public watchers, and establishing a Department of State telephone hotline for watchers to report violations.

Mandates that ballots and voter certificate envelopes be sourced from separate vendors, requires supervisors to use separate USPS billing permits for outgoing versus returned mail ballots with daily reconciliation, and requires ballot/envelope/seal accounting reports to be reviewed by the canvassing board and approved by the Department of State before certification.

Creates new criminal penalties including a second-degree misdemeanor for election workers who alter voter certificate envelopes to cure deficiencies, a second-degree misdemeanor for wearing another poll watcher's identification badge, and a third-degree felony for unauthorized printing of ballots or voter certificate envelopes that appear valid.

Requires county canvassing boards to review daily exception reports on chain of custody, ballot reconciliation, manual cross-checks, and physical security throughout the election period, and prohibits certification of any race where unresolved discrepancies exceed the margin of victory, with potential removal from office for supervisors responsible for chain of custody mismanagement. Effective July 1, 2024.