{"id":214826,"date":"2026-04-01T18:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:05:17","slug":"gov-desantis-signs-florida-save-act-as-aclu-sues-to-overturn-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214826\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. DeSantis signs Florida Save Act as ACLU sues to overturn it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new election legislation covering voter ID and citizenship checks while almost immediately being met with a federal lawsuit<\/a> from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU<\/a>).<\/p>\n

DeSantis signed the \u201cFlorida Save Act<\/a>\u201d at a news conference in The Villages. The new law requires voters to prove their citizenship status when they register to vote and makes changes to the list of valid voter IDs.<\/p>\n

The changes take effect Jan. 1, 2027, so it would not impact the 2026 election cycle. Republicans said the measure upholds Florida\u2019s election integrity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur 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,\u201d DeSantis said\u00a0 before he signed the measure passed during the 2026 Legislative Session. \u201cI am excited to be able to sign this. This is a big deal, but it isn\u2019t as big a deal in Florida because of all the hard work we\u2019ve done over many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the new lawsuit accuses the state of making voting more difficult for married women,\u00a0transgender people, naturalized citizens, students and low-income residents.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida has enacted a law that will make it harder for eligible U.S. citizens to vote \u2014 and for some, impossible,\u201d said the federal lawsuit filed by ACLU and the ACLU Foundation of Florida representing several parties, including the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Rising and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit said the new law puts hurdles in place to vote since many people don\u2019t possess a passport or birth certificate if they were born without one, or if they lose their records in a fire or hurricane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida voters already confirm their citizenship when they register to vote. Instead of securing elections, HB 991 causes eligible voters to be disenfranchised,\u201d said Jessica Lowe-Minor, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite strong opposition from our state\u2019s voting rights coalition, the Governor signed a bill tying the right to vote to the possession of costly documents that many U.S. citizens don\u2019t have easy access to. No eligible Floridian should be pushed out of the voter rolls simply because of red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis implied that a lawsuit was likely coming as he signed the legislation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens on all these? I sign it, they sue us, right?\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThey go to a liberal judge. The liberal judge sides with them. Then we appeal and then we win, right? So, that\u2019s probably what will happen on this. \u2026 I\u2019ve seen the song and dance long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

HB 991<\/a> also prevents college students from using their student identification cards as voter ID to vote. Starting in 2027, people\u2019s citizenship status will be put on any new or renewed driver\u2019s licenses going forward by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.<\/p>\n

The new law also requires federal political candidates in Florida to disclose whether they intend to trade stocks while in office.<\/p>\n

Under the law, candidates running under a political party must also be a registered member of that political party for at least 365 consecutive days before the start of the qualifying period. Candidates who changed their name through Florida\u2019s general name-change petition process within the previous year would be prohibited from qualifying. Exceptions are included for name changes related to marriage, divorce or adoption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new election legislation covering voter ID and citizenship checks while almost immediately being met…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23727,28,30,29,97982,97983,97984,412,64318,97985],"class_list":["post-214826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aclu","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-save-act","tag-hb-991","tag-league-of-women-voters-of-florida","tag-ron-desantis","tag-save-act","tag-voter-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214826","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=214826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}