May 2009 -- Amazing to read!
Grand Jury report indicting Ray Sansom, former Speaker of the Florida House, and James Richburg, former President of NorthWest Florida State College.
The indictment of Florida Speaker of the House Ray Sansom is related to our investigative and watchdog work because it involves campaign finance violations. This Grand Jury Report is one of the most fascinating—and disturbing—things you will read all year. The degree of the alleged corruption is almost unbelievable. Even more unbelievable--as this document describes--Grand Jurors were told that appropriations similar to the $6 million in taxpayer money, funneled to benefit a developer, are “common and routine” and likened to “a gnat hitting a windshield,” implying that the level of corruption in the Florida Legislature is out of control. This is a “must read” document to understand what is going on in Florida government. Click here to read this extraordinary Grand Jury "Presentment."
May 6, 2009 -- Voter suppression bills are dead!
Thank you to everyone who called their legislator to stop the "The Voter Suppression Act of 2009" from being passed in the Florida Legislature -- it worked! The bill was stopped dead in its tracks thanks to thousands of citizens who called or wrote to oppose it. Over 40 civil rights and voting rights organizations worked together, contacting newspapers and sending out tens of thousands of Action Alerts. Newspapers around the state wrote scathing editorials opposing the proposed legislation. Good job, everyone!
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April 2009
Kill Florida Senate Bill #956 --
“The Worst Elections Bill in 100 Years”
In addition to numerous provisions that disenfranchise voters, Senate Bill # 956 takes power away from the county Supervisors of Elections and gives almost unlimited power to the Department of State, reversing 100 years of decentralized election administration in Florida without any analysis or understanding of the severe ramifications of doing so. Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho calls this "the most profound and negative change to Florida election law in over 100 years."
Read more...  |
“Community Voices”
by Susan Pynchon and Kitty Garber,
published in the Daytona Beach News Journal, March 24, 2009
Read more… |
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FFEC Position Paper on Proposed Amendment to the Florida Constitution, “Guaranteeing the Right to Vote by Secret Ballot,”
March 19, 2009
Read more… |
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March 5, 2009
By Susan Pynchon, Executive Director
Florida Fair Elections Coalition
Florida's Department of State is proposing a few strategically placed words that would gut Florida Statute 104.29, a brief but powerful law that currently offers Florida citizens their greatest protection for election observation. Read more ...
Click here to view DRAFT ELECTIONS BILL , February 27, 2009,
proposed by the Florida Department of State |
GAO Report on Sarasota Lost Votes "Fatally Flawed"
According to Researchers
GAO Sarasota CD-13 Report Summary
GAO Sarasota CD-13 Report Highlights
GAO Sarasota CD-13 Report
Florida ABC news station segment on FFEC's Sarasota report
Link to transcript or video 
Florida Fair Elections Center, and its lobbying counterpart, Florida Fair Elections Coalition, are the two arms of a nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization that serves the public good as an election watchdog, educational and research group, and advocate for fair, transparent, accessible, secure, and verifiable elections throughout Florida.
FFEC has been at the forefront of the effort in Volusia County, Florida, to preserve optical-scan, paper-ballot voting and to prevent the purchase of touch-screen voting machines without a voter-verified paper trail.
Since our founding in DeLand, Florida, in November 2004, we have expanded to include partnerships with other election integrity and civil rights groups at the local, state, and national level.
