DeSantis signs Florida\u2019s version of SAVE Act while Trump attends Supreme Court deliberation about citizenship<\/a><\/p>\nDuval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said election fraud has not been a widespread issue locally, though he noted even a small number of questionable votes can matter in close races.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a size standpoint, it\u2019s not a big issue, but we\u2019ve had elections as tight as two votes,\u201d Holland said. \u201cYou can never say it won\u2019t impact an election.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Holland, about 120 votes have been questioned in Duval County over the past three years.<\/p>\n
Under the new law, current registered voters will not need to take additional steps to prove citizenship unless they are notified by the state. Holland emphasized that voters will not be required to show proof of citizenship at polling places.<\/p>\n
Instead, the requirement will apply during the voter registration process. Citizenship verification will be tied to records handled through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which uses a federal system to confirm eligibility when issuing or updating identification.<\/p>\n
The law also tightens rules on acceptable voter identification, eliminating some forms such as student IDs.<\/p>\n
Voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the ACLU, Florida Rising, Common Cause and the Hispanic Federation, have challenged the law in court. A federal lawsuit has already been filed seeking to block its implementation.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Black, an immigration attorney, said the new requirements could create hurdles for some voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll create problems for people who don\u2019t have their birth certificates or don\u2019t know how to get them,\u201d Black said. \u201cIt also creates challenges for people who have changed their names.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black added that in her experience, cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare. She said the law could disproportionately affect elderly residents and minority communities who may have limited access to necessary documents.<\/p>\n
The SAVE Act is scheduled to take effect in January 2027 and will not impact the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Duval County\u2019s top elections official is weighing in on a newly signed Florida law that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28,116,118,117,99,4220],"class_list":["post-217539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217539","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=217539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}