{"id":190501,"date":"2026-03-13T18:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190501\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:22:06","slug":"florida-lawmakers-give-final-approval-to-state-version-of-anti-voting-save-america-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190501\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida lawmakers give final approval to state version of anti-voting SAVE America Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Polling place supervisor Bridget Knighton installs a sign directing voters to a voting site at Miami City Hall, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Rebecca Blackwell)<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers passed the final version of the state\u2019s SAVE America Act, an anti-voting law pushed by President Donald Trump nationally, after House and Senate leaders Thursday reconciled differences between their versions of the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the battle over the national SAVE America Act<\/a> reaching a fever pitch<\/a>, Florida Republicans this week raced to enact their own version<\/a> of the restrictions, which could disenfranchise millions of voters by enacting significant new hurdles to casting a ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The severe new voting rules<\/a> would require voters to prove their citizenship status, as well as remove student ID as an acceptable form of voter identification.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to sign the measure into law.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, a voter registration applicant\u2019s citizenship status must be verified by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Until that happens, an applicant will be registered as an unverified voter and must vote with a provisional ballot that will not be counted if his or her legal status as a citizen cannot be verified through the department\u2019s records.<\/p>\n

The law doesn\u2019t just impact new registrations. It also requires the Florida Department of State to verify the citizenship status of all registered voters who have not already been verified as U.S. citizens. If the citizenship status of a registered voter cannot be established or the voter record does not indicate that the registered voter\u2019s citizenship is verified, the department must notify local election officials, who then notify the registered voter.<\/p>\n

Florida Democratic lawmakers blasted their Republican counterparts for making voting more difficult when the state already has secure elections, as well as sufficient procedures for preventing and prosecuting illegal voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the system is working, why are we making it harder for eligible Florida citizens to vote?\u201d state Sen. Kristen Arrington (D) asked.<\/p>\n

Last year, Florida found 198 \u201clikely noncitizens who illegally registered and\/or voted in Florida\u201d out of the more than 13 million people on its voter rolls, according to a report<\/a> from the state\u2019s Office of Election Crimes and Security. The office referred 170 of them to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement that SAVE America\u2019s burden will fall hardest on students, seniors, naturalized citizens and working families without easy access to the required records.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freedom to vote should never hinge on someone\u2019s ability to navigate a maze of bureaucracy,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cDemocracy depends on participation. And when barriers stand between the people and the ballot box, democracy itself is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polling place supervisor Bridget Knighton installs a sign directing voters to a voting site at Miami City Hall,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-190501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190501","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=190501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}