WATCH: Reps. Anna Eskamani and Rita Harris Detail Trump and Florida Republicans’ Attacks on the State’s Elections

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Try And Stop Us convened a press call with Florida State Representatives Dr. Anna Eskamani and Rita Harris, Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Michael Sozan, and Protect Democracy’s Emily Rodriguez on Trump and Florida Republicans’ attacks on Florida’s elections ahead of November.

The call came one day before early voting opens statewide and two weeks after a federal judge struck down the Trump Justice Department’s scheme to collect state voter rolls and purge voters with a federal database that wrongly flags eligible citizens. Governor Ron DeSantis also signed a “show your papers” law that will force Floridians already registered to vote to prove their citizenship or get kicked off the rolls.

“The reality is that President Donald Trump and Florida Republicans have worked really hard to make voters confused, exhausted, and doubting whether it’s worth even showing up,” said State Representative Dr. Anna Eskamani. “They’re counting on cynicism, they’re counting on anxiety, they’re counting on intimidation, and it’s really important that we give them turnout instead, and that we push back against these efforts to make it harder to vote.”

“I have spoken to a lot of constituents who held on to their ballot until early voting because they were concerned that they would not get there in time or they would not be counted correctly,” said State Representative Rita Harris. “When people hear over and over again that elections are rigged or that their vote won’t be counted, they start to wonder whether their vote matters, and that is incredibly irresponsible. And our president should be building confidence in our elections and not working to dismantle it day by day.”

“One of the administration’s sabotage techniques is trying to push states to purge voters from the voter rolls, relying on incredibly faulty data that is sweeping up eligible voters. And they're already bringing lawsuits against states that don’t comply,” said Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Michael Sozan. “The most powerful way to counter any subversion efforts and safeguard our democracy is for Floridians to exercise their power and vote in the election.”

“This is one state’s version of a national strategy that we at Protect Democracy have been tracking for years. We call it the Executive Override. It has three parts: deceive, disrupt, deny. Deceive is the administration manufacturing a pretext, a claim that elections are full of ineligible voters. Disrupt is using that pretext to justify interference in how states run elections, and deny is using any resulting confusion to contest the results if they don’t like them,” said Protect Democracy’s Emily Rodriguez.

A recording of the press call is available here. Try And Stop Us’ Florida fact sheet is available here.