1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to protect our state's election integrity from federal interference. Recent events demonstrate an urgent need for state-level safeguards. The FBI raid on Fulton County, Georgia's elections warehouse under a sealed warrant sought to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election, despite those ballots being recounted multiple times. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present at this raid, despite the DNI having no role in law enforcement. The Department of Justice has now sued 24 states to access voter rolls containing private voter information. Attorney General Pam Bondi has granted a Missouri-based federal prosecutor special authority to investigate and prosecute alleged election offenses anywhere in the country. President Trump has stated on Dan Bongino's podcast that elections in fifteen states should be "nationalized" and that "Republicans ought to nationalize the voting." These actions represent a coordinated effort to undermine state control of elections and lay groundwork for challenging unfavorable results in 2026 and 2028. While courts provide important protection, we cannot rely on litigation alone to defend our democratic processes. I urge you to advance legislation that strengthens our state's election infrastructure. Specifically, we need laws that cement election certification as non-discretionary, protect election officials from federal pressure, implement robust election audits with voter-verifiable paper trails, and safeguard voter registration data from unauthorized federal access. We should also allow ballot pre-processing and expand early voting to speed result reporting, reducing windows for disinformation. Our election officials need clear legal authority and protection to resist federal encroachment on state election administration. The future of free and fair elections is being determined now in state capitals. I ask that you prioritize election protection legislation this session and publicly commit to defending our state's constitutional authority over our own elections.