Miami, Fla. – Five Florida legislators, along with two voters and the Florida Democratic Party, sued to prevent Miami-Dade election officials from continuing to destroy election materials critical to verifying election results. The lawsuit filed today in Miami-Dade County state court seeks a ruling that ballot images, which digital voting equipment automatically create and use to count the vote, be preserved for 22 months as federal and state law require. The suit further seeks a ruling that ballot images, like paper ballots, should be treated as public records available for inspection and production under the law.

Currently, at least 32 of the state’s county Supervisors of Elections preserve ballot images while others, including Miami-Dade, do not. The lawsuit seeks an order enjoining Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White from destroying ballot images in all future elections, including the August 23rd primary and November 8th general elections.

As recently as July 28, 2021, the United States Dept. of Justice issued election guidelines clarifying federal law on the subject. The USDOJ stated that all jurisdictions must “retain and preserve records created in digital or electronic form.”