Florida Senate approves election integrity bill; Hours later house finalizes, DeSantis expected to sign Florida lawmakers have finalized a sweeping election integrity bill that will take effect in 2027, requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration and new disclosure rules for candidates. Hours after the Senate approved the measure Thursday, the House passed it, sending the legislation to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it into law.
The legislation, HB 991, passed with a 27–12 vote along party lines. Because the Senate adopted a “delete-all” amendment that replaced the original House language with provisions from SB 1334, the House must now concur with the changes before it can head to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
New citizenship requirements and ‘unverified’ voters
The bill introduces a rigorous verification process for new and existing voters. If an applicant’s legal status as a U.S. citizen cannot be verified through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, or DHSMV records, they will be registered as an “unverified voter.”
These individuals must vote using a provisional ballot, which will only be counted if they provide sufficient evidence of citizenship to the supervisor of elections by 5 p.m. on the second day after an election.
“We have safe elections in Florida, but they don’t stay safe if we don’t pay attention to the large gaps that exist where we can address additional fraud,” Republican Sen. Erin Grall, the Senate sponsor, said during her closing remarks.
Restricting student and senior IDs
A major point of contention during the floor debate was the removal of certain forms of identification previously accepted at polling places. The bill strikes credit cards, student IDs, and retirement center IDs from the list of acceptable “Tier 1” photo identifications.
Democrats argued this move specifically targets college students and the elderly. Sen. Tina Polsky warned that students would face significant hurdles.
“When we are taking away a right, we have to construe it very narrowly,” Polsky said. “There is no policy reason for these changes […] you are voting for disenfranchisement of certain people”.
Sen. Carlos Smith noted that the University of Central Florida, the state’s largest public university, would see tens of thousands of students impacted.
“There is no rationale for this change,” Smith said. “There is nothing wrong with using a UCF student ID with your signature on it to go vote.”
Fierce Democratic Opposition
Opposition senators repeatedly questioned the bill’s necessity, citing the extreme rarity of non-citizen voting. Sen. Kristen Arrington cited data showing only 77 instances of non-citizen voting nationwide over a 25-year period.
Sen. Tracie Davis, a former supervisor of elections staffer, warned that the new requirements would overwhelm local offices with provisional ballots.
“We’ve gone from a couple hundred provisional ballots on election day to now a couple thousand,” Davis said. “The supervisors have two days to verify this. It’s not practical.”.............
https://flvoicenews.com/florida-senate-approves-election-integrity-bill-pushes-major-changes-to-2027/
