Credit: Shutterstock - Vita Khorzhevska

A bill that significantly alters voting rules in the state took one step closer to becoming law Wednesday, as the Florida Senate prepared legislation reducing early voting days, protecting against voter fraud and setting up a committee to determine the date for the 2012 presidential preference primary for a final vote.

SB 2086 would prevent voters from changing their address at the polling place, if they move outside of the county, which proponents say will protect against fraud. Democrats and detractors of the bill claim it is a purely partisan bill aimed at disenfranchising college students and young voters, who typically vote Democratic.

The bill also reduces the number of early voting days from 14 to eight days, but allows county supervisors of elections to open up for 12 hours during early voting, which means the current 96 hours of early voting availability could still be offered.

“I don’t agree with that,” Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said when asked if it was a partisan bill. “I don’t think that benefits Republicans or Democrats, whoever they are, I think that benefits voters.”

Democrats tried in vain to tack on several amendments designed to mitigate the effects of the bill. Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, offered an amendment that would keep the current law allowing petition-gatherers four years to get the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to place an initiative on the ballot. SB 2086 reduces the time to two years.

“This really precludes any ballot initiative by the people,” Margolis said. “The citizens don’t have a chance to get the amount of signatures in two years.”

Republicans also resisted an amendment that would have allowed citizens to change the language in a ballot petition if it was stricken from the ballot by the courts. The Senate recently voted to give the Legislature the opportunity to alter a constitutional amendment if it is deemed unworthy by the courts.

“Citizens should have the opportunity we have to change the ballot language,” said Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, who offered the amendment.

Diaz de la Portilla disagreed.

“I think two years is a pretty reasonable period of time for the signatures to be valid, it’s not like we’re saying six months,” he said.

He also thought the amendments were a cynical attempt to kill the bill in the final stages, since any changes would alter the delicate balance negotiated with the House.

“The bill is so comprehensive, it has so many things that we’ve negotiated with both sides that to interject new things in it that haven’t been vetted, that haven’t been discussed in committee ... would just basically kill the bill,” he said.

A committee to determine the exact date of the 2012 GOP presidential preference primary would also be created by the bill, with the committee adopting a final date by October. The date of the primary has become a hot national issue, as the Republican National Committee has threatened to limit the number of Florida delegates if the primary is held before Feb. 5. The Democratic National Party punished the Sunshine State in 2008 for holding the primary before that date.

The bill, which passed through the House last month, is scheduled for a final vote Thursday in the Senate.

Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.