On April Fools' Day, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Elections bill (HB 991), also known as the Florida SAVE Act. But multiple pro-voting groups said the new law is no joke.
The law requires people who need to update or change their registration and those voting for the first time to prove their citizenship. It also requires Florida officials to remove people from the voter rolls they believe are not eligible to vote.
At the bill signing in The Villages, DeSantis said the law will protect the voting registration process.
"Our constitution in the state of Florida says only American citizens are allowed to vote in our elections, and so we need to make sure that that is the law," the governor said.
Almost immediately after DeSantis signed it into law, pro-voting organizations filed multiple lawsuits in federal court.
The lawsuits
Abha Khanna is a partner at Elias Law Group and represents the Florida NAACP and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. The groups filed suit in Tallahassee federal court.
Khanna said the law's proof-of-citizenship requirements for people registering to vote violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
"These kinds of provisions, historically and traditionally, have had an undue burden, particularly on minority voters, older voters, and low-income voters," Khanna said.
But DeSantis said the law is just another way he’s strengthening elections. In 2022, he started the Office of Election Crimes and Security to tamp down on voter fraud, especially in “bigger blue areas.”
"In some of these jurisdictions, they just don't believe in doing voter fraud," the governor said at the bill signing. "That's just the reality."
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Khanna pushed back against DeSantis' claims.
“This idea that there is rampant, widespread non-citizen voting across the country or in Florida specifically, has never been borne out by any evidence in any state."
The ACLU of Florida filed a separate lawsuit in federal court in Miami the same day DeSantis signed the bill. Attorney Carrie McNamara agrees with Khanna.
"The idea that Florida has a problem with their elections is just false, and it is propaganda, and it's designed to scare people into not voting or to accept results that aren't accurate,” she said.
McNamara represents multiple pro-voting groups in the ACLU's case, including UNIDOS, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and Common Cause.
She said with the national SAVE Act making headlines, the ACLU saw this coming.
“The idea that in order to justify your citizenship, you have to pull together documents from the government that cost money, it's just a way to disenfranchise, truly, millions of people and to significantly change who can vote and decrease the number of people in the state who can vote.”
To vote in any federal, state, or local election, you must be 18. There are some other restrictions, but McNamara said, "Everyone born in this country gets to vote, and everyone who naturalizes once they come here gets to vote.”
Current Florida law already requires people to confirm their citizenship when they register to vote. McNamara is concerned eligible voters might not cast a ballot when facing paperwork barriers or confusion over the law.
Who will this affect?
Amy Keith leads the Florida chapter of Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization focused on protecting democracy. She said the law hasn't gone into effect yet, and she's already heard from voters expressing confusion on how to register.
“(Florida officials) want people to be confused and to feel like it's not worth it, or to have all these hurdles to jump over,” Keith said.
Keith said Florida already has "aggressive list maintenance." A 2023 law placed stricter requirements on how local supervisors of elections offices maintain voting rolls, dropping people who haven't voted in the last two election cycles.
"If you are inactive, you can still vote," Keith said. "If you've been removed, you cannot. You are going to have to re-register."
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With this new law, Keith said the state’s motor vehicles and voter registration databases will be cross-checked to verify citizenship. If they match, you probably won’t run into problems. But if they don’t, you’ll have to show your papers — and it could affect millions of Floridians.
"If you maybe first got your driver's license when you were a green card holder and you had permanent residence, and you've since naturalized and become a U.S. citizen, and therefore now have the right to vote," Keith said, it's possible the DMV could flag you as a non-citizen, even though you are.
"The other groups that we're worried about are the huge number of Floridians who don't have a Florida driver's license or a Florida State ID," Keith said.
And that could include out-of-state students, senior citizens, low-income residents, and Floridians with disabilities. Keith said there will also be groups of people who will encounter administrative errors when the databases are compared.
Floridians react to the new law
Susan Magnuson from Riverview is in her 70s. She said she’s never seen laws like this.
"We don't have a transit system here in Florida, so to be able to get to this office and get these documents, and prove your citizenship and all that other baloney, I believe it is a deliberate attempt to limit our voice in Florida,” she said.
Magnuson said she keeps her documents together, but she thinks "there's an awful lot of seniors that would have to scramble and would probably not even bother" to get their documents or vote. And she said this new law makes it more difficult.
"It just outrages me," Magnuson said.
Your Florida asked users on the Threads social media app what they thought about the new law. A majority of respondents are in opposition, calling it "voter suppression" or "ridiculous." But a few responses were supportive of the legislation, saying they "loved it."
How to prepare
Whether you support the law or not, Amy Keith with Common Cause recommends people start getting their documents in order just to be safe.
"Don't let anybody take your voting power away from you due to this kind of confusion or misinformation or these additional hurdles," she said.
Here are some ways Keith said people can prepare for the new law:
- Call your local Supervisor of Elections and give them your driver's license number.
- Visit the state's voting registration website and request an updated voter information card.
- For new voters or people updating their registration, include both your Social Security number and driver's license number to reduce the chance of being flagged.
- If you are able to get a Florida driver's license or state ID, get one.
But Elias Law partner Abha Khanna said people shouldn't have to jump through these extra hurdles.
"There is time for Florida voters to trust the legal process, trust the litigants who are fighting on their behalf, and trust the courts to protect their rights," Khanna said. "So hopefully, it does not come down to them having to lay out those burdens in order to cast their vote."
The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
Voting-rights groups say nothing will change until after November’s midterm elections.
WUSF reached out for comment from state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who introduced the bill. Her office did not respond to our request by deadline.
Want to join the conversation or share your story? Email Meghan at bowman4@wusf.org.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
