It would set up a system to match the state voter registration database in the Secretary of State\u2019s office and the driver\u2019s license database at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Because the vast majority have proven their citizenship to renew their licenses as part of the federal REAL ID rules, verification likely would be invisible for most voters.<\/p>\n
But there are some 872,000 people with licenses or state ID that are not REAL ID compliant. And others who have never had a driver\u2019s license or state ID.<\/p>\n
Citing research published by the Brennan Center for Justice that found more than 9% of American citizens of voting age don\u2019t have readily available proof of citizenship, the League of Women Voters said that would work out to about 1.4 million people in Florida.<\/p>\n
They would be required to verify citizenship, by showing a birth certificate, passport or naturalization paperwork. Ashwell and other advocates said that is a high hurdle for many people, some of whom don\u2019t have the money to get copies of the documents, or were born in other states decades ago and may never have been issued birth certificates.<\/p>\n
People who change their party affiliations, or have changed their names, usually when getting married or divorce, would have to present proof. Just how that will work is unclear, Ashwell said. \u201cThe bill is very short on details about how it is going to work. It doesn\u2019t detail the steps about how those checks will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Sen. Rosalind Osgood, D-Fort Lauderdale, told colleagues that she has been married and divorced twice, keeping her second ex-husband\u2019s name. The name-changing life changes came so long ago that Osgood said she wasn\u2019t sure where or how to locate documentation.<\/p>\n
State Sens. Lori Berman of Palm Beach County and Barbara Sharief of Broward, both Democrats, said residents of the half-dozen Century Village and Kings Point condominium communities in the two counties are home to many older seniors who no longer drive so haven\u2019t renewed driver\u2019s licenses. They don\u2019t have a REAL ID.<\/p>\n
Berman sought to add<\/a> \u201cthe Century Village-Kings Point amendment\u201d to the bill. It would have exempted voters from the citizenship requirement if they were at least 80 years old, been continuously registered to vote in the state, and voted in four general elections.<\/p>\n Republicans rejected the amendment after Grall said it \u201ccould grandfather in noncitizens\u00a0who have been voting improperly.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s already illegal for non-citizens to vote, and violations appear rare.<\/p>\n Pressed for details, Persons-Mulicka has cited a state report about 2025 election investigations that referred to 198 \u201clikely noncitizens who illegally registered and\/or voted in Florida.\u201d That works out to less than 1 possible noncitizen for every 70,000 registered voters.<\/p>\n ID<\/p>\n The legislation would change identification rules<\/a> for voters. The issue isn\u2019t whether voters should be required to show identification. That\u2019s a national controversy but long been a requirement in Florida.<\/p>\n Almost all voters use their driver\u2019s licenses or state ID cards.<\/p>\n State law has long allowed other picture identification. The legislation would no longer allow use of student IDs and retirement center identifications though several other forms of ID would still be accepted, including military identification and concealed weapons permits.<\/p>\n Voting rights advocates and Democrats said removing student and retirement IDs would prevent some people from voting. DeSantis on Friday said he\u2019s long considered the use of student IDs as voting identification as a \u201cloophole.\u201d<\/p>\n The legislation has several other elements.<\/p>\n Driver\u2019s licenses: Beginning next year, newly issued driver\u2019s licenses and state ID cards will get an extra marking \u2014 in addition to the verification that they are REAL ID compliant \u2014 specifically indicating if the person is a U.S. Citizen.<\/p>\n Democrats warned that could lead to discrimination against non-citizens in non-voting situations in which people use licenses as ID. Republicans said that wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Dual citizenship: Any candidate for any elected office would have to disclose if they hold dual citizenship with another country.<\/p>\n State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, the daughter and wife of immigrants,\u00a0said that provision suggests that someone with dual citizenship isn\u2019t loyal to the U.S. Hunschofsky said it said it was \u201ctargeting\u201d certain people. Persons-Mulicka said it was designed to add \u201ctransparency.\u201d<\/p>\n Stock sales: Anyone running for Congress would have to disclose if they intend to trade stocks while in office, or if they have done so while serving in previous congressional terms.<\/p>\n Legislators are not implementing the requirement to themselves, Persons-Mulicka said, because they don\u2019t have the potential access to the same kind of valuable inside information accessible to some members of Congress.<\/p>\n Florida lawmakers didn\u2019t give Trump one of his big national priorities: eliminating vote-by-mail balloting for anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n The president has long claimed, without evidence, that mail voting is rife with fraud. Despite those presidential assertions, widespread mail voting that replaced the old absentee voting system after the 2000 presidential election has been good for Florida Republicans.<\/p>\n Mail ballots have helped Republicans increase their dominance in the state, including Trump winning Florida in 2016, 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n Axed from an earlier version of the bill was a provision that would have scrapped recounts in close elections and implemented a new system of auditing elections.<\/p>\n Also not included<\/a> in the final bill was a provision that would have stopped Palm Beach, Duval and Lee counties from continuing to use systems designed to shorten wait times at early voting sites.<\/p>\n Under Palm Beach County\u2019s ExpressVote system, people have been given the option of getting a traditional paper ballot or using a system that allows them to mark their choices on a screen. The voter then prints a card with their choices that they could review before casting the ballot. The system has aroused suspicions among some people who doubt the integrity of election systems.<\/p>\n House Bill 991<\/a> received final legislative approval on Thursday<\/a>, 27-12 in the Senate and 77-28 in the House.<\/p>\n All Republicans voted \u201cyes,\u201d except state Sen. Alexis Calatayud of Miami-Dade County. All Democrats voted \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n State Sen. Jason Pizzo, who represents most of coastal Broward County and northwest Miami-Dade county, voted \u201cyes.\u201d Pizzo used to be a Democrat, but quit the party last spring and became a no party affiliation\/independent.<\/p>\n DeSantis, whose signature is required for the bill to become law, said Friday that the measure is \u201cgoing to fortify our already robust protections.\u201d<\/p>\n Marc Elias, a prominent national election lawyer aligned with Democrats, promised a legal challenge was coming. \u201cIf this is enacted, Florida will be sued,\u201d Elias wrote on social media.<\/p>\n Even without the threat of litigation, voters won\u2019t see immediate effects. An earlier version of the legislation would have implemented key provisions on July 1, just weeks before the Aug. 18 primaries and months before the Nov. the general elections.<\/p>\n After repeated warnings from voting advocates and elections administrators about possible chaos from an attempted speedy implementation, sponsors postponed the effective date for key provisions until Jan. 1, after this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The selling point, from state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, was simple and direct. The Fort Myers Republican told colleagues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[506,2715,28,30,29,114,266,373,5741,5742,115,557,99,109],"class_list":["post-192452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-broward-county","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192452","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=192452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TFL-L-Christine-Hunschofsky-01.jpg\")
State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, argues against legislation that would make several changes in Florida election law during a House debate on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Florida Channel\/courtesy)
\nOther provisions<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773584231_869_TFL-L-polsky-senator-01.jpg\")
State Sen. Tina Polsky, a Broward-Palm Beach county Democrat, argued against Republican-sponsored changes in Florida election law on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Florida Channel\/courtesy)
\nNot in the bill<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773584232_20_TFL-L-senator-erin-grall-01.jpg\")
State Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach Republican, explains her legislation on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, that would change Florida election law, including provisions to verify citizenship of registered voters and ending the use of student ID and retirement center ID as acceptable forms of identification for Florida voters. (Florida Channel\/courtesy)
\nBecoming law<\/p>\n