Florida\u2019s version of the national SAVE Act cleared the finish line Thursday evening, and if signed by the Governor, it will come with new citizenship verification requirements to vote.<\/p>\n
It could mean some voters will need to update their registration before Duval County\u2019s local elections in 2027.<\/p>\n
Under the bill, Florida voters would have to ensure their citizenship is verified starting January 1st, 2027, to avoid issues at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Residents will need proof of citizenship on file with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and or their local Supervisor of Elections Office.<\/p>\n Duval Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland explained that it includes documentation like a birth certificate, passport or naturalization certificate.<\/p>\n \u201cTo make sure you\u2019re a US citizen, because that is required to be one in order to vote,\u201d said Holland.<\/p>\n To get a driver\u2019s license or state ID, Floridians already need<\/a> to provide a birth certificate or a valid passport, so most valid voters with a Florida driver\u2019s license likely won\u2019t be directly impacted.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Starting next July, the bill would even require driver\u2019s licenses to include a symbol indicating US citizenship.<\/p>\n Holland said voters who are impacted would be notified of any issues well before Election Day to ensure they have the proper documentation on file.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a requirement that I reach out to the voter and give them time to provide the documentation,\u201d said Holland.<\/p>\n But State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) argued that accessing that documentation isn\u2019t so easy for all voters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe children of those who have been enslaved and were not born with birth certificates, those elders who are going to face challenges. Anyone who is divorced, change of last name. There\u2019s so many dynamics here,\u201d Eskamani said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n The bill would also remove student IDs from the list of identification that can be used at the polls.<\/p>\n Eskamani argued that could impact thousands of Florida college students.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd are now going to be given a provisional ballot and have to navigate that administrative burden, the bureaucratic process to verify their vote,\u201d Eskamani said.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s version of the national SAVE Act cleared the finish line Thursday evening, and if signed by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[88012,38677,28,30,29,34427,88611],"class_list":["post-189437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-birth-certificate","tag-citizenship","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jerry-holland","tag-state-representative-anna-eskamani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}