Our Voice
Our Florida

Building a Better
Democracy for All

VOTE-BY-MAIL

/

The deadline for voters to request that ballots are mailed to them ahead of the March 19 Municipal and Presidential Preference Primary elections is TODAY, March 7th, at 5 p.m.

Due to the vote-by-mail enrollment reset following the 2022 General Election, voters might be unaware that they will not be receiving their vote-by-mail ballots unless they re-submitted a request and they could miss the deadline. Please use and share this convenient resource that will direct voters to each county's online vote-by-mail request site.

There are many municipal elections happening across the state and voters should not miss out on those. Some counties holding municipal elections include Broward, Collier, Flagler, Holmes, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Sarasota.

Vote-by-Mail Resources

Upcoming Election

March 2

/

Saturday, March 9 - Saturday, March 16

(Excluding Sunday)

*Each county Supervisor of Elections may offer more days of early voting. Contact your County Supervisor of Elections for the early voting schedule for your county.

ELECTION DAY

/

Tuesday, March 19

Contact your local Supervisor of Elections to register to vote, request an absentee ballot, check important dates for local elections, and for more details on voting in your area.

Find Your County's Election Info

March 26 • 2:00 PM • Virtual

/

LEGISLATIVE TOWN HALL MEETING

State Voices Florida is excited to announce that we’ll be having a virtual Town Hall on Tuesday, March 26 at 2 p.m.

The focus of the Town Hall will be on the Florida 2024 legislative session that concluded earlier this month. Our main focus will be on voting rights legislation, but we’ll also touch on criminal justice reform and how some of our legislators were treated during this session.

The event will be moderated by State Voices Florida Communications Director Larry Hannan. The panel will include:

State Representative Anna Eskamani
Black Voters Matter Florida Organizing Director Jamil Davis
ACLU of Florida Policy Strategist Abdelilah Shkir

To register for the town hall, click the button below.

Register for the Legislative Town Hall

State Voices Florida is a statewide civic engagement organization committed to bringing together progressive 501(C)(3) organizations to work together in building power around civic issues. If the progressive movement works together and speaks with one voice, great things will happen.

We believe everyone should have the right to vote, and voting should be simple and easy. We also support reproductive rights, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, economic justice and affordable housing for everyone.

Along with our partner organizations, we use data and technology, people-powered campaigns, and coalitions to collectively build a multiracial democracy that allows every Floridian to thrive and live in their full dignity. We are a member of the State Voices Affiliated Network, a network of state-based coalitions, advocates, and organizers fighting for a healthy, multiracial democracy.

We have over 100 partner organizations. They range from large national organizations with hundreds of employees to small nonprofits based out of a single county or even a single neighborhood. We provide support and tools to nonprofit partners regardless of size, to improve infrastructure while increasing capacity for all of our partners.

May 1, 2025

/

,

,

,

,

,

Make the citizen initiative process easier….not harder

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida Senate earlier today. State Voices Florida opposes this legislation. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

Floridians have used citizen-led amendments to pass transformative policies, such as the $15 minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana, restoring voting rights to returning citizens and prohibiting gerrymandering when drawing Congressional Districts.

The following is a statement from Larry Hannan, communications and policy director at State Voices Florida.

“The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future. We call on legislators to abandon efforts to make this process harder.”

April 3, 2025

/

,

,

,

,

,

Restricting the citizen amendment process hurts all Floridians

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida House of Representatives earlier today. The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future.

If this bill or its companion in the Senate, SPB 7016, becomes law it will give only ten days to turn in petitions, and create unnecessary and burdensome fines on volunteers, preventing everyday Floridians from being able pass policies that improve our lives and strengthen our communities when politicians refuse to act.

State Voices Florida opposes this legislation and urges the Senate to reject both HB 1205 and SPB 7016. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

February 3, 2025

/

,

,

,

Voting Rights Coalition Urges Jacksonville Area State Attorney to Reconsider Decision to Drop Charges in Clear Case of Voter Intimidation

JACKSONVILLE- Today, a coalition of voting rights organizations from North Florida and across the state released a letter to State Attorney Melissa Nelson, urging her office to reconsider its decision to drop all charges in what appears to be a clear case of voter intimidation at a Duval County polling site during the 2024 General Election. The coalition warns that the failure to prosecute voter intimidation sets a dangerous precedent and undermines public confidence in free and fair elections.

The letter, signed by organizations such as Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Branch NAACP, and Jacksonville Community Action Committee, expresses deep concern over the decision not to prosecute an individual who reportedly brandished a machete at a polling location, threatening two women exercising their democratic rights.

“The facts of the case as publicly reported appear very compelling: a man wielding a deadly weapon approached a polling location and engaged in threatening behavior towards supporters of one of the presidential candidates on the ballot,” the letter states. “Your office’s dismissal of this case undermines public confidence in the justice system and fails in its duty to protect Florida voters.”

September 26, 2023

/

Make the citizen initiative process easier….not harder

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida Senate earlier today. State Voices Florida opposes this legislation. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

Floridians have used citizen-led amendments to pass transformative policies, such as the $15 minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana, restoring voting rights to returning citizens and prohibiting gerrymandering when drawing Congressional Districts.

The following is a statement from Larry Hannan, communications and policy director at State Voices Florida.

“The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future. We call on legislators to abandon efforts to make this process harder.”

Everyone deserves the ability to achieve their full potential and the freedom to be their truest selves. We envision a country in which this is a reality.
BIPOC communities must be at the decision-making table because those most impacted by the problems have the best ideas for the solutions.
Voting is an action we can take to achieve our shared vision—and casting a ballot should be easy and accessible to each voter. Every vote must count.

Get Election Information

May 23, 2025

/

Civil Rights

,

Civic Access

,

Legislative Sessions

Judge weighs whether to block Florida’s new amendment petition law

by News Service of Florida for Tampa Bay Times

TALLAHASSEE — “Fear and uncertainty” about a new law targeting the state’s ballot initiative process has led to a significant drop in people working to collect signatures for 2026 ballot measures, groups challenging the law told a federal judge on Thursday.

One of the most controversial parts of the law, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature on May 2 and immediately signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, shortens from 30 to 10 days the length of time to submit signed petitions to supervisors of elections.

In addition, the law includes hefty fines for petitions that are filed late and makes it a felony for petition gatherers to retain voters’ personal information on petitions or make changes to completed petitions. Groups accused of “substantial irregularities” in the petition process could face racketeering charges.

Florida Decides Healthcare, a committee sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expanding Medicaid coverage, quickly filed the lawsuit this month to challenge parts of the law. Smart & Safe Florida, a committee behind a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational marijuana, also is a plaintiff in the case. A similar marijuana proposal narrowly failed to pass in November, and the committee is trying to go back to voters in 2026.

May 21, 2025

/

,

,

,

Why GOP-led states are passing new restrictions for ballot initiatives

PARKS: And today on the show, direct democracy. We’ve talked a lot in recent years about ballot measures allowing voters to weigh in directly on things like reproductive freedom and ranked choice voting. But now, Ashley, you are reporting that a number of Republican-led states are making it harder to get these sort of initiatives on the ballot. So I want to take a step back and just talk about the process of how things get on a ballot more broadly. Can you walk us through how something becomes kind of a vague political idea to actually getting something voters weigh in on?

LOPEZ: Yeah, so there are about two dozen states in this country that allow citizens to petition their state to change its laws, usually by amending their constitution. And how this works for the most part is fairly straightforward. You have to get a certain number of voters to sign a petition to get an issue on a ballot. And depending where you live, there are rules about who collects those signatures, how, and how much time they have. And then if state officials and, you know, oftentime (ph) the courts get involved – if they say that the language passes legal muster, then that will appear on a ballot before voters. And typically, if a measure gets a majority approval – and then it passes.

Download the Flyer

State Voices Florida is a statewide civic engagement organization committed to bringing together progressive 501(C)(3) organizations to work together in building power around civic issues. If the progressive movement works together and speaks with one voice, great things will happen.

We believe everyone should have the right to vote, and voting should be simple and easy. We also support reproductive rights, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, economic justice and affordable housing for everyone.

Along with our partner organizations, we use data and technology, people-powered campaigns, and coalitions to collectively build a multiracial democracy that allows every Floridian to thrive and live in their full dignity. We are a member of the State Voices Affiliated Network, a network of state-based coalitions, advocates, and organizers fighting for a healthy, multiracial democracy.

We have over 100 partner organizations. They range from large national organizations with hundreds of employees to small nonprofits based out of a single county or even a single neighborhood. We provide support and tools to nonprofit partners regardless of size, to improve infrastructure while increasing capacity for all of our partners.

Our Voice
Our Florida

Building a Better Democracy for All

State Voices Florida is a statewide civic engagement organization committed to bringing together progressive 501(C)(3) organizations to work together in building power around civic issues. If the progressive movement works together and speaks with one voice, great things will happen.

We believe everyone should have the right to vote, and voting should be simple and easy. We also support reproductive rights, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, economic justice and affordable housing for everyone.

Along with our partner organizations, we use data and technology, people-powered campaigns, and coalitions to collectively build a multiracial democracy that allows every Floridian to thrive and live in their full dignity. We are a member of the State Voices Affiliated Network, a network of state-based coalitions, advocates, and organizers fighting for a healthy, multiracial democracy.

We have over 100 partner organizations. They range from large national organizations with hundreds of employees to small nonprofits based out of a single county or even a single neighborhood. We provide support and tools to nonprofit partners regardless of size, to improve infrastructure while increasing capacity for all of our partners.