'The cost too great': Florida GOP passes more restrictive voting laws

04 May 2023

Florida GOP lawmakers have officially passed legislation that will restrict voter registration groups from assisting voters, CNN reports.

Per CNN, the 96-page proposal mostly centers around prohibiting "third-party voter registration groups" from doing their jobs, which will disproportionately impact voters of color.

Earlier this month, Miami Herald reported the proposed legislation package would include:

Preventing people who are not U.S. citizens from collecting or handling voter-registration applications for the third-party registration groups. Also barred would be people who have been convicted of certain felonies, such as violations of the state elections code.
Shortening a time frame from 14 days to 10 days for voter-registration groups to deliver registration applications to supervisors of elections. Also, the bill would increase fines for missing the deadline or not turning in applications.
Requiring that voter-registration groups provide receipts when they collect applications from people. Requiring voter-registration groups to re-register with the state after every general election.

READ MORE: Florida Republicans ramp up their 'really dangerous' voter suppression campaign

Miami-based Ebony Johnson, who assists organizations focused on registering Black voters, told CNN "she's going to have to be 'creative' to comply with the new provisions once enacted," noting "her groups usually register – or help check the registration status for – about 150 to 200 people in a typical, two-year election cycle."

She insisted, "We come across barriers all the time. We just learn to jump over them in different ways."

CNN reports:

Additionally, the bill is poised to shift responsibility to individual Floridians to demonstrate their eligibility to cast ballots, after the arrest of 20 convicted felons last year for allegedly voting illegally in the 2020 election. Several defendants have said they thought that voter identification cards sent to them by state officials provided proof that their voting rights had been restored.

Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida — which is one of the largest third-party voter registration groups in the Sunshine State – insisted the law would serve as "a barrier to voting."

Likewise, University of Florida voting expert Daniel Smith emphasized the impact the laws will have on non-white voters, noting his 2021 research found "about 1 in 10 Black and Latino voters in the state registered through a third-party group. And Black and Latino voters were five times more likely to register through one of these groups than White residents of the state."

Smith told CNN, "It is likely that the new legislation will effectively stifle voter registration efforts by non-partisan groups in Florida. The penalties have become too high, the cost too great, for groups on the ground doing the hard work of registering the thousands of Floridians eligible to vote in the state."

CNN's full report is available at this link.

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