Like many others across the nation, people gathered outside the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Fla., on Oct. 18, 2025, to send a message: No Kings. People played music and danced. Kids found space to throw a football. People ran into old friends. 

“What really stood out to me was how much fun it was. I mean, people were enjoying themselves. You had people in frog costumes and other things. You had some pretty funny signs,” says Larry Hannan, communications and policy director for State Voices Florida, who attended the No Kings rally outside the courthouse in Jacksonville. 

Hannan, who also attended the first iteration of No Kings back in June, estimated a 50 percent increase in attendance. Jacksonville’s protest mirrored other mobilizations across the country. On Sept. 18, it’s estimated that 7 million people turned out at 2,700 No Kings events. 

The protests come in response to the Trump administration’s increasingly authoritarian actions as Trump approaches the end of his first year in office. During his first 10 months back in the White House, Trump has weaponized federal agencies against the American people.

Petition groups that planned to have their ballot proposals ready for the 2026 election often plan to have enough signatures by November to meet Florida’s procedural deadlines.

But as of now, it’s not known if any group will get there.

Of the various groups backing 20 different proposed amendments to the state’s constitution next year, the one with the closest numbers to the state’s requirements is Smart and Safe Florida, which wants Florida adults 21 and older to be able to possess, purchase or use marijuana.

Throughout the year, petition groups have told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida that the goal was to meet Florida’s signature requirements by November, to give time for county supervisors of elections to verify and tally signatures under deadlines set by Florida law.

So far, Smart and Safe Florida has met one required preliminary threshold of 220,016 signatures, which should – among other things – trigger judicial review by the Florida Supreme Court. Its justices must find that the amendment deals with one subject and that its ballot title and summary are clear and unambiguous.

But on Oct. 31, the group filed a lawsuit against Florida’s secretary of state, alleging he was violating state-mandated procedures and effectively blocking the proposed amendment. Since the group met the threshold that typically triggers the secretary of state to transmit the petition to the attorney general’s office. That hasn’t happened, so they’re requesting the Florida Supreme Court gets involved.

DENVER (AP) — After months of extraordinary steps to ensure his party maintains control of the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterms, President Donald Trump is turning his sights toward the voting process in Tuesday’s elections.

That pivot is raising alarm among Democrats and others who warn that he may be testing strategies his administration could use to interfere with elections in 2026 and beyond.

Late last week, Trump’s Department of Justice announced it was sending election monitors to observe voting in one county in New Jersey, which features a race for governor that Republican Trump has become deeply invested in, and to five counties in California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing a ballot measure to counter the president’s own effort to rejigger the congressional map to elect more Republicans.

That announcement was followed with a pre-emptive attack by Trump on the legitimacy of California’s elections. The post on his own social media platform echoed the baseless allegations he made about the 2020 presidential election before he and his allies tried to overturn his loss in a campaign that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Mid-decade congressional redistricting efforts are moving forward across the country as Republican states consider redrawing district lines to protect party control in Washington.

Florida lawmakers are among those expected to pursue redistricting changes, despite opposition from voting rights groups who say the move would erode public trust in the electoral process.

“It is something that erodes public trust,” said Jacquelyn Steele of Equal Ground, a voting advocacy organization.

Voting advocates urged Tallahassee area lawmakers on Monday to keep the state’s congressional map unchanged. Steele said there is no legitimate need for redistricting in Florida.

“There really isn’t a need. The need is coming from Washington, trying to keep control in one party,” Steele said.

U.S. House districts are typically redrawn once a decade, immediately after each census. With a narrow majority, President Donald Trump is pushing states to redraw boundaries to protect Republican control. The effort is gaining support in Republican states, including Florida.

Republicans currently hold 20 of the state’s 28 congressional seats. Governor Ron DeSantis announced his support for a new census to force Florida’s redistricting in August.

A Sarasota resident says it’s unfair that political independents are shut out of Primaries.

Among the dozens of petitions the U.S. Supreme Court rejectedthis week was one from a Sarasota resident who challenged Florida’s closed Primary system.

Michael J. Polelle is a former lawyer and emeritus professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. An independent voter, he was upset after moving to Sarasota in 2012 and learning that as a no-party voter, he was shut out of County Commission Primaries because of the state’s closed system.

Florida is one of a minority of states with closed Primaries. That system locks out the nearly 3.4 million Floridians registered as no-party voters, as well as 443,000 more who are registered with a minor political party — more than 28% of the electorate.

In a phone interview this week, Polelle, 87, told the Phoenix that while he was bothered by not being able to vote in the Primaries in 2012, he wasn’t willing to do anything about it at the time. But he said his feelings changed after the 2016 election, when he realized how “fragile” the election system was, and how it gravitates towards polarization.

“But then what really struck me is that I never realized that my real estate taxes go to pay for these Primaries that I can’t vote in. And that makes no sense to me,” he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For decades, the faces of American politics have grown more diverse by nearly every measure, especially as racial minority communities gained political representation after longtime legal disenfranchisement and violent discrimination.

But after some Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark law that civil rights leaders credit with enabling pluralistic democracy in the U.S., Black lawmakers, civic leaders and organizers fear that the faces of the nation’s elected representatives may soon return to a time before hard-fought civil rights gains.

Justices on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that scrutinizes whether Section 2, a part of the Voting Rights Act that bars discrimination in voting systems, is constitutional.

Rep. Cleo Fields, who represents the Louisiana congressional district at the heart of the case, sat in the courtroom as the justices questioned attorneys on both sides of the case. He said he hopes the scope of the ruling’s impact would give justices pause about whether to gut the law.

The Supreme Court appeared poised today to weaken a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by limiting the ability of lawmakers to use race as a factor in drawing voting maps.

At the heart of the case is a debate over whether Louisiana violated the Constitution when it adopted a new electoral map in 2024, creating the state’s second majority-Black district. The plaintiffs challenged Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed race to be used as a factor in creating electoral maps in an attempt to undo generations of efforts to suppress the power of Black voters.

During today’s oral argument, several of the court’s conservative justices appeared focused on whether there should be a time limit to using race as a factor in creating electoral maps. The court may rule that the Voting Rights Act, in seeking to protect minority voters, violates the 14th Amendment, which forbids the government to make distinctions based on race.

If the justices determine that lawmakers cannot consider race when drawing districts, the consequences could be sweeping. Republican state legislatures could use the ruling to eliminate around a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South, according to a Times analysis, enough to make Republicans favored to win the chamber even if they lost the popular vote by a wide margin.

Democratic voting rights groups are preparing for a nightmare scenario if the Supreme Court guts a key part of the landmark civil rights-era legislation, the Voting Rights Act — a very real possibility this term.

Ahead of the court’s Oct. 15 rehearing of Louisiana v. Callais — a case that has major implications for the VRA — two voting rights groups are sounding the alarm, warning that eliminating Section 2, a provision that prohibits racial gerrymandering when it dilutes minority voting power, would let Republicans redraw up to 19 House seats to favor the party and crush minority representation in Congress.

That calculation, made in a new report from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund shared exclusively with POLITICO, would all but guarantee Republican control of Congress.

While a ruling in time for next year’s midterms is unlikely, the organizations behind the report said that it’s not out of the question. Taken together, the groups identified 27 total seats that Republicans could redistrict in their favor ahead of the midterms — 19 of which stem from Section 2 being overturned.

The Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Tampa voter against Gov. Ron DeSantis over his failure to call a Special Election for Senate District 14.

The Hillsborough County-based seat is open after DeSantis appointed former Sen. Jay Collins as Lieutenant Governor on Aug. 12. A month and a half later, a Special Election to replace him has still not been called.

The suit seeks to compel DeSantis to schedule one.

“Tampa deserves full representation in the Legislature. By refusing to call a special election, the governor is denying us that right and ignoring decades of established precedent. It’s illegal and wrong,” said Cort Lippe, the Tampa resident behind the legal complaint.

The lawsuit argues DeSantis’ inaction leaves constituents in SD 14 without representation at a particularly inopportune time — lawmakers are set to begin committee weeks Oct. 6 ahead of the 2026 Legislative Session, which begins Jan. 13.

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Thursday directing the federal government to investigate and dismantle “domestic terrorism networks.”

The move appears targeted at  left-leaning progressive nonprofit groups, which Trump days ago vowed to dismantle, falsely claiming they fund and support political violence and terrorism in the U.S.

The memo directs the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to go after “anti-fascist”  movements in the U.S.

“This ‘anti-fascist’ lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties,” the memo reads.

Trump signed the memo shortly after the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice directed several U.S. attorneys offices across the country to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a progressive grant network founded by Democratic megadonor George Soros.

For decades, the Department of Justice (DOJ) relied on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) to foil and forestall attempts to discriminate against minority voters. 

On Wednesday, the DOJ filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to devastate and vitiate much of what’s left of the landmark civil rights legislation.  

When courts have ordered racially gerrymandered maps redrawn for violating Section 2 of the VRA, “they have compelled States to violate the Constitution to remedy phantom statutory violations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued for the DOJ in an amicus brief filed in Louisiana v. Callais. 

The lawsuit could deliver a deathblow to the VRA, which was significantly weakened by 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder. In Shelby, the Supreme Court struck down the law’s requirement for jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination — mostly in the South — to get all voting changes approved, or “pre-cleared,” by the federal government. 

Under then-President Joe Biden, the DOJ filed an amicus in December 2024, as Callais was first pending before the Supreme Court, which defended the new electoral map Louisiana had adopted in response to successful VRA challenge. But after President Donald Trump took office, the government withdrew the brief.

Only state and local election officials will provide voter registration services at naturalization ceremonies, under new guidance from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services facilities,

The announcement has sparked strong reactions from voting rights and immigrant advocacy groups.

“It’s an additional attack to third party voter registration organizations from doing the good work of helping the community stay informed and have opportunities to engage in democracy,” said Teresa Guzman Pagan, expanding democracy director of Florida Rising, a voting rights and grassroots organizing group.

The policy prohibits the involvement of nonprofits and community organizations “to keep the process nonpartisan,” while still giving new citizens “full access to registration materials and information through official channels.”

The agency highlighted in their policy alert, published in late August, that the use of nongovernmental organizations was “sporadic” and “varied based upon the location.”

Florida leaders are calling for unprecedented mid-decade redistricting.

Changing the congressional map usually happens just once a decade after the U.S. Census. 

But, after Texas redid its map to send more Republicans to Congress at President Donald Trump’s urging, other states are now following suit in a political battle to tilt the balance of power ahead of the 2026 midterms.

But data released this week indicates most Floridians disagree with mid-decade changes.

That includes 45% of Republicans, 60% of independents and 62% of Democrats, according to a poll commissioned by the advocacy group Common Cause.

“Floridians do not want the Legislature to waste our taxpayer dollars and their time trying to make our voting maps even more gerrymandered than they already are,” said Amy Keith, who leads the Florida chapter of the group, in a virtual press conference on Thursday. “Floridians want our Legislature to focus on making our state a more affordable place to live.”

Efforts to redraw congressional maps in Texas and beyond are setting off a flurry of litigation as Republicans and Democrats look to add pickup opportunities in the House ahead of 2026. 

Several groups have filed lawsuits against Texas’s congressional maps, which seek to put five more seats in play for Republicans heading into next year’s midterms, arguing the map is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act. 

But pending litigation in several other states, including Louisiana and North Dakota, could have major ramifications for the Voting Rights Act and who’s allowed to bring those lawsuits in the first place — decisions that could have consequences for future maps down the line. 

Here’s a look at five legal redistricting battles to watch: 

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Tonya Mosley. The 2026 midterms are a little over a year away, but questions about election integrity are already front and center. Just this week, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department is quietly working to build a national voter roll by collecting sensitive voter data from states, a move experts warn could be used to revive false claims of widespread fraud and undermine confidence in future elections.

And recently, President Trump has openly proposed using executive power to ban both mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines. My guest today, law scholar Richard Hasen, has warned in a recent op-ed that an order like that would not only be against the law, it would wield, as he writes, the machinery of government to sow doubt, undermine trust and tilt the election playing field.

Those warnings echo a broader wave of concern. Earlier this week, Mother Jones also published a report on what it’s calling Project 2026, a coordinated effort by Trump and his allies to rewrite voting rules, redraw congressional maps and pressure state and federal officials who are responsible for overseeing elections. It all raises a profound question – are our democratic institutions strong enough to withstand that kind of strain?

Lawmakers will be back in Tallahassee next month to convene committee hearings. Among those committees will be the new House Select committee on Congressional Redistricting.

Rep. Mike Redondo, a Republican first elected in 2023 to represent part of Miami-Dade County, will chair the 11-person committee.

House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican, announced last month that the committee would convene. The Senate lacks a similar panel.

“Exploring” questions related to redistricting, Perez said last month, “would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our Supreme Court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment.”

A spokesperson for Senate President Ben Albritton, a Republican, told the Phoenix Tuesday that the Senate had no updates about whether the Senate would convene a committee on congressional redistricting.

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez has appointed state representatives to a redistricting committee to study and complete an historic mid-decade redrawing of Congressional maps.

It’s a move prompted by President Donald Trump, who wants to ensure Republican control of the House.

That could mean the local seats held by Democrats Maxwell Frost and Darren Soto could be targeted for changes that might make it more challenging for them to retain those seats.

When Republican leaders redrew congressional maps in 2022, that turned a 16-11 GOP advantage in Florida to an even bigger one, 20-8. The governor believes another round of redistricting could give republicans 2-3 more seats in Congress.

“There will be major court battles. You already have some groups saying that they are going to sue no matter what the maps look like,” said University of South Florida political expert Susan MacManus during an interview with WESH 2.

The Justice Department is compiling the largest set of national voter roll data it has ever collected, buttressing an effort by President Trump and his supporters to try to prove long-running, unsubstantiated claims that droves of undocumented immigrants have voted illegally, according to people familiar with the matter.

The effort to essentially establish a national voting database, involving more than 30 states, has elicited serious concerns among voting rights experts because it is led by allies of the president, who as recently as this January refused to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. fairly won the 2020 election. It has also raised worries that those same officials could use the data to revive lies of a stolen election, or try to discredit future election results.

The initiative has proceeded along two tracks, one at the Justice Department’s civil rights division and another at its criminal division, seeking data about individual voters across the country, including names and addresses, in a move that experts say may violate the law. It is a significant break from decades of practice by Republican and Democratic administrations, which believed that doing so was federal overreach and ripe for abuse.

“Nobody has ever done anything like this,” said Justin Levitt, an election law expert at Loyola Marymount University’s law school and a former Justice Department official.

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide if citizens can still enforce the Voting Rights Act, after a federal appeals court ruled that only the government — not private citizens — can sue to enforce protections against racial discrimination in voting.

In a petition filed Tuesday, Native American voters and tribes urged the justices to overturn an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that stripped voters and organizations of the ability to bring cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — the law’s core protection against racially discriminatory voting laws.

“Section 2 is, and always has been, enforced primarily by private litigants,” the petition argues. “Congress enacted the VRA to enforce the rights-creating guarantees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and crafted Section 2 in explicitly rights-creating terms.”

The case stems from North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting plan, which “cracked” Native communities into multiple districts, diluting their voting power. A federal district court struck down the map under Section 2, but the appeals court reversed — not on the facts, but on the grounds that private plaintiffs cannot enforce Section 2 at all.

Aug 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he will issue an executive order to require voter identification from every voter.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military,” he added.

Trump has long questioned the U.S. electoral system and continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. The president and his Republican allies also have made baseless claims about widespread voting by non-citizens, which is illegal and rarely occurs.

For years, he has also called for the end of electronic voting machines, pushing instead for the use of paper ballots and hand counts – a process that election officials say is time-consuming, costly and far less accurate than machine counting.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — As Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier fight for a mid-decade census in the ongoing redistricting battle, could districts in the Tampa Bay area be targeted?

Political analyst, Tara Newsom says there are a number of seats Republicans have their eyes on flipping, one of them being U.S. Representative Kathy Castor’s 14th congressional district, but Governor DeSantis is also drawing attention to other areas like South Florida.

“North of I-4, I think, is a pretty sound map. I don’t think there’s any basis, I think when you get into central, but particularly southeast Florida, there starts to become questions,” said Governor DeSantis.

Florida currently has 28 congressional seats, 20 of them occupied by Republicans. And as Texas and California deal with redistricting showdowns, could Florida be next?

“Can Republicans really cobble together more congressional districts than the 20 that they already hold in the state of Florida, and that’s where I think going after Tampa Bay is a real issue because we’re just too moderate, too centrist, and there’re too many Democrats and moderate Republicans that live in this area,” said Newsom.

Gov. Ron DeSantis will have multiple opportunities over the next eight months to call a special legislative session so the boundaries of Florida’s congressional districts can be redrawn.

It appears the Republican governor has his eye on one of Palm Beach County’s congressional seats — the District 20 spot held by U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat. During remarks on Aug. 20 at Palm Beach State College near Lake Worth Beach, DeSantis mocked the shape of the district, which was crafted after the 1990 Census to increase the chances that a Black candidate could win there.

“It’s the most irregularly shaped district on Florida’s map,” DeSantis said of District 20, whose boundaries bow out and squiggle to include the Glades, Mangonia Park and Riviera Beach before dipping down to encompass heavily Black portions of Broward County.

There are many oddly shaped districts in the Sunshine State, and DeSantis could ask state legislators to change their boundaries during any of the two-week committee meetings scheduled to be held in Tallahassee in October, November and December. The 2026 legislative session is also scheduled to begin in mid-January and run through March, a month before the April 20-24 filing window for candidates who want to run in the mid-term elections in November 2026.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — The League of Women Voters said Tuesday it opposed the unconventional mid-cycle congressional district redrawing effort led by Republicans. The group outlined non-partisan advice to help guide state lawmakers.

The league said it opposed mid-cycle gerrymandering because it can “easily be used to disenfranchise voters based on race or party affiliation,” read a joint statement by LWV’s CEO Celina Stewart and its president, Dianna Wynn.

The Washington-based League of Women Voters unveiled its guidance on mid-cycle map drawing for governors and state legislators under the heading of “No Harm to Our Communities: Mapping Guidance for Elected Leaders.”

Wynn and Stewart called the Republican-led political moves “uncharted territory” for the country.

The two pointed blame to an “unpopular, authoritarian president” who they said “exploits racial division and seeks to silence voters in a shameless bid for power” as Republicans fear losses in the 2026 midterm elections.

NEW YORK (AP) — A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, an organizational chart on its website shows.

The political appointment, first reported by Democracy Docket, shows how self-styled election investigators who have thrown themselves into election conspiracy theories since 2020 are now being celebrated by a presidential administration that indulges their false claims. 

Her new role, which didn’t exist under President Joe Biden, also comes as Trump has used election integrity concerns as a pretext to try to give his administration power over how elections are runin the U.S.

Florida election officials and voting rights advocates want to get the word out now that if you’ve renewed or replaced your state driver’s license or state ID in the past year, that could affect your ability to vote by mail or have your signature on a petition ballot be counted.

The change in policy started more than year ago. Beginning on July 31, 2024, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles began implementing legislation that requires the distinguishing numbers assigned to a driver’s license or identification card to include at least four randomly generated numbers. The agency says the change was done “to improve security and safeguard individuals’ identities.”

That change means that when voters go online to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot, they could encounter error messages if their driver’s license information is out of sync with the information they supplied when registering to vote.

“The main problem is that information isn’t being forwarded to supervisor of elections or local elected officials, and that becomes an issue mainly for vote-by-mail voters and those signing petitions, because more recent laws have made strict requirements for ID numbers,” said Brad Ashwell, Florida director for All Voting Is Local.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t budging on his push for mid-decade redistricting in the nation’s third-largest state, even as the war over congressional maps is currently being waged largely between Texas and California.

DeSantis — along with Attorney General James Uthmeier — laid out reasons Wednesday why the Florida Legislature may eventually need to redraw maps. Florida’s current maps — which were muscled into law by DeSantis three years ago — already give the GOP a 20-8 delegation edge.

Both top Republican officials continue to blast the last Census as flawed, with both raising questions as to whether Florida was deliberately undercounted to ensure it did not gain more than one seat following the 2020 Census. Uthmeier went so far as to mention a “deep state” effort to deny extra representation to Florida.

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed more changes to the way elections are conducted in the U.S., but based on the Constitution there is little to nothing he can do on his own.

Relying on false information and conspiracy theories that he’s regularly used to explain away his 2020 election loss, Trump pledged on his social media site that he would do away with both mail voting — which remains popular and is used by about one-third of all voters — and voting machines — some form of which are used in almost all of the country’s thousands of election jurisdictions. These are the same systems that enabled Trump to win the 2024 election and Republicans to gain control of Congress.

Trump’s post marks an escalation even in his normally overheated election rhetoric. He issued a wide-ranging executive order earlier this year that, among other changes,would have required documented proof-of-citizenship before registering to vote. His Monday post promised another election executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm elections.”

The same post also pushed falsehoods about voting. He claimed the U.S. is the only country to use mail voting, when it’s actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Leaders of the two most populous states, Democrats in California and Republicans in Texas, are trying to redraw the voting lines for the midterm congressional elections next year. It’s a break from the usual process and was touched off by President Trump calling on Texas to give Republican candidates an edge.

For months, the slim Republican majority in Congress has given the green light to mass deportations, health care cuts, tax breaks and many other Trump priorities.

But Republicans have only a 219-to-212 advantage in the U.S. House. To maintain that majority, the White House is calling on GOP-led states to redraw their voting maps in ways that help Republican candidates win more seats.

States usually redistrict early in each decade after the census count. This technical process is important. Whichever way people vote, the way they’re grouped in congressional districts can determine who wins and whether a citizen’s vote makes a difference.

The Texas and California legislatures plan to meet on their opposing plans this week.

President Trump sparked a national sprint to redistrict when he asked Texas Republicans to draw five more congressional seats for the GOP in their state ahead of next year’s elections.

In response, Democratic and Republican leaders in at least seven other states have said they’re open to moving their political lines in the fight over the U.S. House, but that means very different things in different places.

States are often bound by constitutional language and laws that dictate how redistricting happens. And time is running out for maps to be set ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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To see how likely redistricting is before then, we asked reporters in the NPR Network to explain what’s going on in their states.

Just weeks after Florida’s Supreme Court weakened voter-approved restrictions against gerrymandering, Governor Ron DeSantis is already pushing to take advantage of the new ruling.

Fresh off a 5-1 Supreme Court win in his pocket, DeSantis announced plans to redraw Florida’s congressional map again, well before the next census. “Stay tuned,” DeSantis teased at a press conference outside of Tampa in late July.

The push is already underway, adding to a national effort by the GOP, in full swing in Texas, to lock in more seats before the midterms. Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez said he will name the members of a new redistricting committee next month.

Even if Republicans forgo a new map this year, the ruling locks in Florida’s existing gerrymander, and it’s likely to embolden the GOP whenever it next redistricts the state.

The court blessed DeSantis’ 2022 push to dismantle a North Florida district where Black voters had consistently elected their preferred candidate for three decades. 

More than that, the justices signaled a retreat in their willingness to protect Black voting power with the Fair Districts Amendments, a set of standards approved by voters in 2010.

If Republicans succeed in pulling off an aggressively partisan gerrymander of congressional districts in Texas, they will owe the Supreme Court a debt of gratitude.

In the two decades Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has led the Supreme Court, the justices have reshaped American elections not just by letting state lawmakers like those in Texas draw voting maps warped by politics, but also by gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and amplifying the role of money in politics.

Developments in recent weeks signaled that some members of the court think there is more work to be done in removing legal guardrails governing elections. There are now signs that court is considering striking down or severely constraining the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act, a towering achievement of the civil rights movement that has protected the rights of minority voters since it was enacted 60 years ago last week.

Taken together, the court’s actions in election cases in recent years have shown great tolerance for partisan gamesmanship and great skepticism about federal laws on campaign spending and minority rights. The court’s rulings have been of a piece with its conservative wing’s jurisprudential commitments: giving states leeway in many realms, insisting on an expansive interpretation of the First Amendment and casting a skeptical eye on government racial classifications.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The nation’s redistricting war is now officially coming to Florida.

Citing a recent court ruling on the state’s congressional map, state House Speaker Daniel Perez said Thursday he’s creating a select committee to look at drawing up new districts seven years ahead of the normal schedule.

“Exploring these questions now, at the mid-decade point, would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our supreme court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment,” Perez explained in a memo sent out to House members.

Florida’s decision to enter the fray over redistricting comes amid a political donnybrook sweeping the nation from New York to Texas, Indiana and California. The White House has pressured Republicans in Texas to enact a new congressional map that would generate up to five new GOP seats in that state. Texas Democrats this week left their state to avoid a quorum and halt the state Legislature’s business.

Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 congressional delegation margin in Florida thanks to a map muscled into law three years ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis that flipped four seats. The GOP also has a supermajority in the Florida Legislature, and there are not enough Democrats to block lawmakers from passing a new map. DeSantis has to sign off on any changes to the congressional map, but he has already said he is open to redrawing the districts after the Florida Supreme Court upheld the current map.

President Trump on Thursday announced he had instructed the Commerce Department to “immediately” begin working on a new census.

The big picture: The development comes as the White House is pushing red states to draw new congressional maps more favorable to Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. The Constitution requires the census every 10 years to apportion congressional districts.

Driving the news: Trump, in a Thursday Truth Social post, called for a “new and highly accurate” census “based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.”

• He added that “[p]eople who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
• Per the Census website, the Decennial U.S. Census is designed to count every resident in the United States and is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. 

Zoom out: The next census is set to take place in 2030.

• Preparing for the count is a complex process that takes several yearsof planning.
• The Commerce Department, run by Secretary Howard Lutnick, oversees the Census Bureau. 
• The Commerce Department and Census Bureau didn’t immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.

Join us Wednesday, August 6 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. ET for food, music and joyful resistance! We are gathering to claim our power and celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act!

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was signed into law on August 6, 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. We are coming together to celebrate the protections it promised and empower each other as the fight for a free and fair democracy continues. As the Voting Rights Act and many of our most valued freedoms continue to be attacked at the state and national level, join us as we counter fear and repression with joy and collective strength.

Where: Callahan Neighborhood Center
101 N. Parramore Ave.
Orlando, Florida 32801

When: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) — The requests have come in letters, emails and phone calls. The specifics vary, but the target is consistent: The U.S. Department of Justice is ramping up an effort to get voter data and other election information from the states.

Over the past three months, the department’s voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state election administrators in at least 15 states, according to an Associated Press tally. Of those, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission. 

In Colorado, the department demanded “all records” relating to the 2024 election and any records the state retained from the 2020 election.

Department lawyers have contacted officials in at least seven states to propose a meeting about forging an information-sharing agreement related to instances of voting or election fraud. The idea, they say in the emails, is for states to help the department enforce the law.

The unusually expansive outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Tuesday to restore and expand protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, their latest long-shot attempt to revive the landmark law just days before its 60th anniversary and at a time of renewed debate over the future administration of American elections.

Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia unveiled the measure, titled the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, with the backing of Democratic leaders. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-led Congress, but it provides the clearest articulation of Democrats’ agenda on voting rights and election reform.

The legislation would reestablish and expand the requirement that states and localities with a history of discrimination get federal approval before changing their voting laws. It would also require states to allow same-day voter registration, prevent voters from being purged from voter rolls if they miss elections and allow people who may have been disenfranchised at the ballot box to seek a legal remedy in the courts.

“Democracy is the very house in which we live. It is the framework in which we get to fight for the things that we care about,” Warnock said. “These last seven months have reminded us that we ought not take any of it for granted. We are literally in a fight for the life of the republic.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Monday ruled that private individuals and organizations cannot bring voting rights cases under a section of the law that allows others to assist voters who are blind, have disabilities or are unable to read.

It’s the latest ruling from the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying only the government can bring lawsuits alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act. The findings upend decades of precedent and will likely be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case centered on whether an Arkansas law that limits how many voters can be assisted by one person conflicts with Section 208 of the landmark federal law. 

The opinion from the three-judge panel followed the reasoning of another 8th Circuit panel in a previous case from 2023. That opinion held that the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Conference could not bring cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“Like the provision at issue in Arkansas State Conference, we conclude the text and structure of (Section) 208 do not create a private right of action,” said the decision written by Judge L. Steven Grasz, a nominee of President Donald Trump. “Likewise, we conclude no private right of action is created by the Supremacy Clause.”

Today is another dark day in the history of Florida. With today’s ruling, the Florida Supreme Court has turned its back on Black voters, the state constitution, and the fundamental principles of representative democracy.

By allowing a map that clearly diminishes Black voting power to stand in a 5-1 decision, the Court has sent a chilling message: the constitutional rights of Black Floridians are negotiable, and the will of the people can be ignored, even when it is written into the very fabric of our laws.

This ruling, handed down by a court largely appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, disregards the Fair Districts Amendments, which were overwhelmingly passed by Florida voters to protect minority voters and prevent partisan gerrymandering. It confirms that even when communities play by the rules, organize, and demand fairness, those in power can still bend the system to serve themselves.

At the heart of this case was a basic question: Do Black Floridians have the right to fair representation in Congress? Today, the Court answered with a resounding no.

This is not just a legal setback, it is a direct attack on Black political power and a decision that will have ripple effects for generations. It cements an unjust political advantage and further erodes trust in our institutions.

Florida’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state’s current congressional redistricting map, rejecting a challenge over the elimination of a majority-Black district in north Florida that was pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The court, dominated by DeSantis appointees, ruled that restoration of the district that previously united Black communities from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee, or across 200 miles (322 kilometers), would amount to impermissible racial gerrymandering. That, the majority ruled, violates the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.

“The record leaves no doubt that such a district would be race-predominant. The record also gives us no reasonable basis to think that further litigation would uncover a potentially viable remedy,” said Chief Justice Carlos Muniz in the court’s majority opinion.

The decision means Florida’s current congressional districts that give Republicans a 20-8 advantage over Democrats will remain in place for the 2026 midterm elections and beyond. The former north Florida district was most recently represented by a Black Democrat, former Rep. Al Lawson. The new districts divide that area among three Republicans.

The U.S. Department of Justice has unnerved some state election officials by issuing sweeping requests for information that it says is pertinent to enforcing federal election laws and investigating voting crimes, which President Donald Trump has identified as priorities.

In letters sent to at least a dozen states over the past two months, according to documents obtained by Votebeat and reported elsewhere, the department asked for varied sets of data and records, including voter rolls, information on potential election and voting crimes, data from past elections, and details about procedures for maintaining voter lists and checking voters’ eligibility. 

State officials say privately that they have been struck by the scope of the requests and uncertainty around what the administration plans to do with the information, and have been talking to one another about them. Many of these officials have faced years of near-constant scrutiny as Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of election malfeasance, and the president has tried to use his influence and official authority to rewrite the history of his 2020 election loss. 

While the requests so far are mostly for data or procedures that are public information or accessible by law to the Justice Department, election law experts said, some of them were more questionable.

CNN’s Joan Biskupic talks with Wolf Blitzer about Justice Clarence Thomas’ quest to undo a key part of the Voting Rights Act and about whether his conservative justices are now will to join him.

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge has blocked a key part of a new law that imposed additional restrictions on the state’s ballot initiative process, saying a ban on non-Florida residents and non-U.S. citizens collecting and delivering petitions “imposes a severe burden on political expression that the state has failed to justify.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Tuesday, however, allowed several other parts of the law to remain in effect, including a requirement that people who gather more than 25 signed petitions register with the state and a moratorium on elections supervisors processing petitions from July 1 through Sept. 30.

Florida Decides Healthcare, a political committee sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expanding Medicaid coverage, filed the court challenge in May after the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved 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 committee proposing a measure aimed at ensuring access to clean water also has joined the challengers.

Walker’s ruling came after the committees requested a preliminary injunction to block parts of the law, which took effect July 1.

With less than five months to go before Miami residents were scheduled to head to the polls to vote on a new mayor and city commissioners, the city of Miami has postponed the upcoming November election to 2026 in a move that critics have described as a “power grab.”

On Thursday, the Miami City Commission voted 3-2 to move the city from odd- to even-year elections — a change that its proponents said will drastically increase voter turnout. But the decision also comes with fine print.

As a result, the city’s elected officials will get an extra year in office. That includes Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo, who are both term limited. Suarez, a former city commissioner, will get a 17th consecutive year in Miami City Hall, and Carollo will get a ninth.

Commissioners Damian Pardo, Ralph Rosado and Christine King voted in favor of the election date change, and Commissioners Miguel Angel Gabela and Carollo voted against.

Republicans in Florida racially gerrymandered two key state senate districts to disenfranchise Black voters and skew results in the Tampa Bay area, a panel of judges has heard.

In one district, they took a small chunk of St Petersburg heavy with minority voters and added it to an area of Tampa in a different county, and across a 10-mile waterway, leaving the remainder of its electorate “artificially white”, the court was told.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, representing voters at a four-day trial in Tampa last week, said the state’s defense that the waters of Tampa Bay made the new district contiguous was ridiculous, pointing out in the lawsuit that “manatees don’t vote”.

“These are cities on opposite sides of the bay and there’s no way to go directly between them,” Caroline McNamara, an ACLU staff attorney, said.

“You either have to go across 10 miles of open ocean at the mouth of Tampa Bay, or you have to cut through other districts in the area through the north end.”

The case has direct parallels in previous moves by Republican officials in Florida to manipulate voting districts to their advantage by undercutting Black voting power.

In North Carolina, it was a lawsuit over the state’s voter registration records. In Arizona and Wisconsin, it was a letter to state election officials warning of potential administrative violations. And in Colorado, it was a demand for election records going back to 2020.

Those actions in recent weeks by the U.S. Department of Justice’s voting section may seem focused on the technical machinery of how elections are run but signal deeper changes when combined with the departures of career attorneys and decisions to dropvarious voting rights cases.

They represent a shift away from the division’s traditional role of protecting access to the ballot box. Instead, the actions address concerns that have been raised by a host of conservative activists following years of false claims surrounding elections in the U.S. Some voting rights and election experts also note that by targeting certain states — presidential battlegrounds or those controlled by Democrats — the moves could be foreshadowing an expanded role for the department in future elections.

David Becker, a former department attorney who worked on voting rights cases and now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the Justice Department’s moves represent a departure from focusing on major violations of federal law.

A panel of three federal judges is now weighing whether a Tampa Bay state Senate district created in 2022 was the result of illegal racial gerrymandering.

A four-day trial resulting from a lawsuit over the district concluded on Thursday afternoon and judges must decide whether the constitutional rights of voters in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties were violated when the Legislature created the Senate district in 2022 that crossed from St. Petersburg over the water to Hillsborough County.

Florida was sued by three voters who are represented by the ACLU of Florida and the Civil Rights & Racial Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law. The plaintiffs allege that the Legislature’s plan to connect Black populations from parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties violated their equal-protection rights by unjustifiably concentrating Black voters into District 16 by removing them from nearby District 18, reducing their influence there.

The defendants, Senate President Ben Albritton and Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, have denied that claim, saying that the maps were lawfully drawn up and previously approved as legally sound by the Florida Supreme Court.

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal trial is underway in Tampa this week as a panel of three judges hears arguments in a lawsuit challenging a Tampa Bay-area Senate district, alleging the district map was racially gerrymandered in violation of constitutional rights.

The suit was filed by the ACLU of Florida and several voters from the Tampa Bay area. Plaintiffs claim the 2022-adopted district map improperly packs Black voters into District 16, diluting their electoral influence, particularly in Pinellas County.

District 16, currently represented by Democratic State Sen. Darryl Rouson, stretches across Tampa Bay, linking the southern portion of St. Petersburg with parts of Tampa and Hillsborough County.

“We’re not asking for special treatment,” St. Petersburg resident and plaintiff Meiko Seymour said in an interview with 10 Tampa Bay. “We’re asking for fair representation.”

Seymour and others argue that crossing the bay to group voters of color into a single district limits their influence in their direct neighborhood.

“When lines are drawn in a way to pack Black voters into one district, it actually weakens our influence across the rest of the city,” Seymour said. “It keeps us from having an actual seat at the table where decisions are being made that impact our schools, our streets and our future.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – A federal judge has partially blocked Florida’s new law regulating how citizens get constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a motion for a preliminary injunction Wednesday. However, the injunction only applied to part of the law. 

Among the several new rules outlined in the law are requiring petition circulators to be registered voters in Florida, shortening the time circulators have to turn in petitions and requiring Financial Impact statements on the petition.

In his order, the judge denied requests to put a stay on those rules. However, he did grant a plaintiff’s request for an injunction to the part of Florida’s new law pertaining to racketeering activity.

“The question for this Court is whether Florida’s expansion of its RICO statute to prohibit committing violations ‘of the Florida Election Code relating to irregularities or fraud involving issue petition activities” is “so vague and standardless that it leaves the public uncertain as to the conduct it prohibits or leaves judges and jurors free to decide, without any legally fixed standards, what is prohibited and what is not in each particular case,’” the order said in part.

A possible proposal by the Miami Commission to shift municipal elections from odd- to even-numbered years — effectively extending current officials’ terms by a year — has drawn threat of legal action from one of the city’s mayoral candidates.

In an email, candidate Michael Hepburn warned Mayor Francis Suarez and the Commission’s four current members against pursuing the change. If they insist on doing so, he said he would tap civil rights lawyer Ben Crump “and others to bring a lawsuit against this action and the city.”

The potential election change, first flagged by Tess Riski of the Miami Herald last month, would delay the scheduled November 2025 city elections to 2026, granting Suarez and Commissioners Joe Carollo and Christine King an additional year in office.

Commissioners Miguel Gabela and Damian Pardo, meanwhile, would stay in office until November 2028 rather than November 2027.

Donald Trump has made false claims about voter fraud central to his political identity and issued a sweeping anti-voting executive order in March. Now he’s weaponizing the Justice Department to advance his voter suppression agenda.

On Tuesday, in its first major voting-related lawsuit, the Trump Justice Department sued the state of North Carolina over its voter rolls, reviving arguments that Republican judicial candidate Jefferson Griffin used to try to throw out tens of thousands of ballots in an effort to overturn the victory of Democratic North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs.

“It’s no accident they’ve chosen a case in which the Republican candidate lost and they’re echoing his exact claims,” says Chiraag Bains, who served as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Joe Biden and as a senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division from 2010 to 2017.

The Justice Department claims that North Carolina violated the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by failing to collect voters’ driver’s license or Social Security numbers when they registered. Griffin challenged the eligibility of more than 60,000 voters who he claimed fell into that category, even though all of those voters showed identification when they cast a ballot and his legal team never presented a single instance of a someone voting improperly.

Some Republican-led states are moving to require voters to prove their citizenship, as Texas advances a controversial measure that could make it harder for eligible voters to get on the rolls because of changed names, mislaid paperwork or database errors.

Voting rights advocates and Democrats warn the plans could prove particularly tricky for people who change their names, including women who do so when they get married or divorced, because their legal names don’t match the ones on their birth certificates. Supporters call the criticism overblown, saying most Americans can readily show they are citizens.

The emerging laws are part of a GOP push led by President Donald Trump to tighten requirements to cast ballots. Voting by noncitizens is both illegal and rare, and the attempts to crack down on voting by foreigners could drive down participation from a much larger pool of legitimate voters, according to election experts.

The Texas legislation passed the state Senate last month, and Republican proponents are hoping to advance the bill through the House by next week as the legislative session wraps up. As two dozen other states consider similar measures, Texas Republicans are weighing whether to change their proposal to more smoothly accommodate name changes, according to people tracking the legislation. The political fight in the state illuminates a larger debate across the country over how to balance election security and access to the ballot.

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.

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.

‘Together, we’re creating a space for real, honest conversations — the kind that move us forward.’

Civil rights leaders and grassroots groups are set to gather in Miami Gardens for “The People’s Meetup,” a town hall led by Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones focused on mobilizing Black voters and advancing social justice.

The May 31 event will feature U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas civil rights and criminal defense lawyer, and civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among others.

A coalition of local and statewide organizations is also partnering with Jones for the event. Among them: Black Voters Matter, Equality Florida, Florida Student Power, Moms Demand Action, the NAACP and SAVE.

“This isn’t another town hall — it’s a community-powered gathering,” Jones said in a statement. “Together, we’re creating a space for real, honest conversations — the kind that move us forward.”

Jones, the first openly gay Black lawmaker elected to the Florida Senate, has built a reputation for grassroots organizing and civic mobilization. He previously spearheaded Operation BlackOut, a statewide voter engagement campaign launched in 2022 that focused on turning out Black and Brown progressive voters in underserved communities.

An election bill requiring new Florida voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship failed to advance in the just-concluded regular legislative session, drawing sighs of relief from both voting-rights and voting-integrity groups, although for different reasons.

The measure arose shortly after President Trump issued his executive order requiring voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. “This bill fully answers the president’s call,” said Lee County Republican Persons-Mulicka when introducing her proposal (HB 1381) before the House Government Operations Subcommittee on April 1.

The bill would have mandated that all voter registration applications, including any with a change in name, address, or party affiliation, could only be accepted after the Florida Department of State verified that the applicant was a U.S. citizen in one of three ways:

• The applicant’s voter record indicated that his or her legal status as a U.S. citizen had been verified.
• The applicant’s legal status as a citizen was matched against records of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• Or the voter showing one of seven identification sources, such as a driver license, a U.S. passport. or a birth certificate.

Critics noted that the provision removed several previous categories to verify voter identification, such as a debit or credit card, student identification, or retirement cards.

The  Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — the most extraordinary attack on voting rights in American history — faces a steep uphill battle in the U.S. Senate. 

But the more immediate threat to ballot access may be in the states, many of which are trying to pass their own version of the measure — or take similar steps to impose proof of citizenship requirements, potentially disenfranchising a large number of voters. 

According to Voting Rights Lab’s voter legislation tracker, there are currently 52 bills introduced in 24 states to impose or expand proof of citizenship requirements. “We’ve been hearing from the President and other members of the administration about their obsession with this lie that noncitizens are casting ballots,” Hannah Fried, the executive director of the nonpartisan voting rights organization All Voting is Local, told Democracy Docket. “That has a trickle down effect. That then leads to state legislatures trying to pass their own laws.”

Lawmakers in Indiana, New Hampshire, Michigan, Missouri, Texasand Utah have advanced anti-voting bills that require some form of strict voter ID and/or proof of citizenship in order to vote. Louisianaand Wyoming are, so far, the only new states this year to enact a proof of citizenship requirement. A similar law in New Hampshire went into effect in November. The Wyoming bill, which became law in March without Gov. Mark Gordon’s (R) signature, requires all voters to show proof of citizenship, along with their Wyoming residency, in order to register to vote. The law, which goes into effect in July, also makes it so that a county clerk can reject a voter’s registration if there’s “any indication” that the person is not a U.S. citizen or Wyoming resident.

Empowering the Latino community to actively shape our future is one of the things I hold closest to my heart. For me, voting is not just a right; it’s a responsibility — one that enables us to elect leaders who will build the Florida we want and deserve. Like many women citizens, I am driven by the desire to create a better tomorrow — not just for myself, but for my family as well. While the journey is demanding, it’s deeply rewarding because our community is eager to take part in positive, transformative change. Sadly, the barriers to our participation in this democratic process are growing.

For years, especially since the 2020 elections, my community has found itself at the heart of anti-voter rhetoric, largely fueled by conspiracy theorists and election deniers. These voices have weaponized false claims about illegal voting, attempting to vilify immigrant communities like ours. They’ve created a narrative that portrays us as fraudsters trying to exploit the system.

The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. What’s happening is simple: we are being scapegoated to push policies that will restrict access to the ballot box, aimed at diminishing the voting power of millions across our nation.

We’ve already witnessed the damage from such policies. From Trump’s Executive Order on Elections to the SAVE Act now pending in Congress, and even Florida’s own HB 1381, these measures have one thing in common: they require voters to prove their citizenship before being allowed to vote. Whether by birth certificate or passport, these “proof of citizenship” policies create a problem where none exists, because we have systems and safeguards in place to ensure only eligible voters can cast a ballot.

WASHINGTON – Dozens of states across the country are considering their own versions of a federal voting bill critics say could disenfranchise millions of Americans, including many married women.

Republican lawmakers in 24 states introduced measures requiring people to prove their citizenship, using documents such as birth certificates or passports, when they register to vote, according to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab. Three other states – Louisiana, New Hampshire and Wyoming – have enacted similar laws in recent months. 

Supporters call the efforts a security measure and say they’re trying to reinforce laws barring noncitizens from voting. But voting rights advocates argue it’s already exceedingly rare for noncitizens to vote – and the laws could make it more difficult for millions of Americans to cast a ballot.

Opponents are particularly concerned the requirements will hit rural communities, military personnel and married women. About 83% of married women changed their name, and for many that means their birth certificates don’t match their current ID.

Listen closely to the arguments of the House Republicans pushing the so-called ‘Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act’ and you realize they aren’t interested in solving the problem the bill purports to address: non-citizens voting in federal elections. If you take the proponents of the bill at their word — that the measure is needed ‘to increase integrity of elections’ because ‘non-citizen voting decreases confidence in our elections’ — you’d expect a targeted proposal aimed at increasing enforcement with the goal of curbing the small percentage of non-citizen votes cast in any election. Instead, the SAVE Act uses a bazooka to kill a gnat. It prohibits state election officials from registering anyone to vote in federal elections unless the person ‘provides documentary proof of United States citizenship’ and produces, in person, either a passport or birth certificate.”

It is impossible to understand the United States without understanding the Civil War and Reconstruction. The American constitutional order went through more changes during those two decades than in the other 230 years of its existence combined. Now the Supreme Court may soon have another opportunity to revisit their contested aftermath.

A group of Virginia election officials asked the justices last month to effectively nullify one of the Reconstruction-era laws that set the terms for the state’s postwar readmission to the Union. In doing so, they hope to maintain a strict regime of disenfranchising Virginians with felony convictions that the Reconstruction-era Congress sought to prevent. Should the justices let the lower court’s decision stand, it could breathe new life to a long-forgotten congressional effort to protect multiracial democracy in the South.

The case springs from a decade-long conflict over the Virginia state constitution and its strict felon-disenfranchisement provision. Twenty-four states impose some sort of legal barrier on their residents’ right to vote after being convicted of a felony. Many of those states restore a prisoner’s voting rights after they complete their sentence, including probation and parole. Others make it permanent for certain crimes.

Virginia is an outlier: Anyone convicted of a felony in the state is automatically and permanently disenfranchised upon conviction. (They are also excluded from jury service and certain other civic rights and duties.) Under the state constitution, which was most recently rewritten in 1971, Virginians with felony convictions can only regain their right to vote after their “civil rights have been restored by the governor.”

When it comes to voting, Florida elected officials love to toot our own horn, claiming we are the “Free State of Florida” and a gold standard in elections. What those officials don’t say is that just a few short years ago, we were the gold standard. 

Now, Florida’s elected leaders are increasingly making it harder for eligible Florida voters to, well, vote. They are, in effect, picking their voters to ensure they remain in power. We’re seeing a perfect example of this playing out right now. House Bill 1381 is a terrible bill that will cause chaos and confusion for voters and election officials. It will make things especially hard for Florida’s seniors, students and rural voters. In fact, any eligible Florida voter with no valid passport or birth certificate that matches their current legal name could be kicked off the voter rolls.

Florida legislators were given an option to change that. In a strike-all amendment proposed in committee by Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, they were given the ability to advance reforms that would help more eligible Florida voters access the ballot while maintaining the safety and security of our elections. They were given the option to move the Florida Voting Rights Act forward and once again make Florida the gold standard in elections. But legislators on the committee picked the bad option that makes voting harder for thousands.

While much of the spotlight in Washington has been on budget fights and new tariffs, the House passed a bill that could reshape how Americans register to vote. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship — such as a passport or birth certificate — in person when registering to vote or updating their voter registration. The measure now moves to the Senate, where Democrats have promised to block it.

Supporters of the SAVE Act argue the bill is needed to ensure noncitizens don’t vote in American elections. Studies and state level audits have found such cases are rare and only account for a tiny percentage of votes.

Republicans have long pushed for stricter laws to combat voting fraud, but experts warn the bill would undermine elections because millions of eligible Americans will face new barriers to voter registration. To understand the potential impact, NPR’s Michel Martin spoke with Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, which opposes the legislation.

President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul elections could hurl 2026 into turmoil by forcing states to hand-count ballots or scramble to spend millions of dollars on voting systems that aren’t yet on the market, according to election officials and voting experts.

If put into effect, his recent executive order attempting to transform elections could make it impossible for some states to use voting machines, election experts said. No voting systems are commercially available that meet the standards the president put forward in his executive order. Election officials broadly oppose hand-counting ballots as an alternative because the practice is time-consuming and prone to errors.

If Trump’s plan ever comes to fruition, it could hit taxpayers hard. Outfitting every state with new machines could cost $1 billion or more.

“It will create chaos in the states, and it seems almost designed to create chaos,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.

The U.S. House has passed a bill that voting rights groups have repeatedly warned would make it harder for millions of Americans, including married women, to vote.

The Republican-controlled House on Thursday voted for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The legislation purportedly aims to block non-citizens from voting, which is already illegal and is very rare.

The bill would require an individual to present in person a passport, birth certificate or other citizenship document when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information.

Voting rights groups have said the bill will pose a barrier for millions of American women and others who have changed their legal name because of marriage, assimilation or to better align with their gender identity. An estimated 69 million American women and 4 million men do not have a birth certificate that matches their current legal name.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic officials in 19 states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape elections across the U.S., calling it an unconstitutional invasion of states’ clear authority to run their own elections.

Thursday’s lawsuit is the fourth against the executive order issued just a week ago. It seeks to block key aspects of it, including new requirements that people provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a demand that all mail ballots be received by Election Day.

“The President has no power to do any of this,” the state attorneys general wrote in court documents. “The Elections EO is unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.”

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to the lawsuit Friday, calling the proof-of-citizenship requirements “common sense” and objections from Democrats “insane.”

“The Trump administration is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections and asking this basic question is essential to our Constitutional Republic,” he said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic officials in 19 states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape elections across the U.S., calling it an unconstitutional invasion of states’ clear authority to run their own elections.

Thursday’s lawsuit is the fourth against the executive order issued just a week ago. It seeks to block key aspects of it, including new requirements that people provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a demand that all mail ballots be received by Election Day.

“The President has no power to do any of this,” the state attorneys general wrote in court documents. “The Elections EO is unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.”

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to the lawsuit Friday, calling the proof-of-citizenship requirements “common sense” and objections from Democrats “insane.”

“The Trump administration is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections and asking this basic question is essential to our Constitutional Republic,” he said in a statement.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote soon on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a Republican-backed bill that would reshape the federal elections process.

Known as the SAVE Act, the proposed legislation would tighten voter registration requirements by mandating proof of citizenship for federal elections.

The bill was scheduled for a vote in early April, but on April 1, Speaker Mike Johnson canceled remaining votes for the week — pushing the timeline back.

Republicans argue the legislation will safeguard elections by ensuring non-citizens cannot vote — something President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed is a major problem.

But elections experts say that non-citizen voting — which is already criminalized — is “vanishingly rare.” And they caution the bill will instead make voting more burdensome for American citizens, particularly married women and rural residents.

“The practical difficulties that this act would entail if it were passed aren’t small, even if the concept sounds unremarkable,” Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, told McClatchy News.

Here’s what to know about the SAVE Act.

Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups are pushing a revised and expanded Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Florida Voting Rights Act, including permanent vote-by-mail requests and other provisions which Republicans will surely reject.

Florida House Representative LaVon Bracy Davis, an Orlando Democrat, and State Senator Tracie Davis, a Jacksonville Democrat, recently announced the filing of the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Florida Voting Rights Act (HB 1409, SB 1582). Senator Davis will proudly carry this legislation during the 2025 legislative session in honor of her friend and colleague, Senator Geraldine Thompson, who tragically passed away in February.

The Democrats say the landmark legislation will position Florida as a voter-friendly state – ensuring the registration and voting process for Floridians before, during, and after they fulfill their civic duty at the ballot box is accessible and straightforward.

he first months of the new Trump administration have been dizzying with the breadth of executive actions to slash the social safety net, further enrich the wealthy, and inflame division based on outdated notions about culture and identity. While White House policy pronouncements have come with flair and political theater – such as the president signing orders on a Jumbotron – in Congress there are quieter but equally pernicious efforts aimed at silencing the votes and voices of communities across the country.

One such piece of legislation is the so-called Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or Save Act, which would require Americans seeking to register or re-register to vote to prove US citizenship. This dangerous bill would in effect strip millions of Americans of their access to the vote, while making the voting process more difficult and burdensome for everyone else. Rather than make our elections more secure, the Save Act would disenfranchise millions based on nothing but a series of debunked conspiracy theories.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the stroke of his pen, President Donald Trumprestructured the way Americans can register to vote and when they can cast their ballots. Or did he?

After the president signed his executive order Tuesday calling for broad election changes, such as proof of citizenship for voter registration and an Election Day return deadline for mailed ballots, election officials, state attorneys general and legal experts said it would face legal challenges for encroaching on state powers outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

The order is “unlawful,” Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement.

“This cannot be done through executive action,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said he expects his and other states will challenge the executive order, just as they have several other of Trump’s actions. He said he’s never seen a president threaten the integrity of state election rules like Trump did through his order.

A super PAC tied to billionaire Elon Musk has started spending in two deeply Republican House seats in Florida ahead of next week’s special elections, according to a new campaign finance report. 

America PAC, which has not filed a financial disclosure form yet this year but was almost entirely funded by Musk last year, is spending $20,000 on “texting services” to boost Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in the 1st Congressional District and state Sen. Randy Fine in the 6th District, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night, which was first reported by The New York Times.

America PAC’s spending in the special elections is minimal so far compared with the millions of dollars that have already been spent there. But it is a sign that Musk may be paying attention to the contests, as he continues to ramp up his political engagement while he serves as a key White House adviser. America PAC has also spent millions of dollars on next week’s state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.  

Tuesday’s special elections in Florida are taking place in deeply Republican territory. President Donald Trump carried the 1st District by 37 points in November and the 6th District by 30 points, according to election result calculations from the NBC News Decision Desk.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive action to overhaul elections in the U.S., including requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and demanding that all ballots be received by Election Day.

The order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.

The move, which is likely to face swift challenges because states have broad authority to set their own election rules, is consistent with Trump’s long history of railing against election processes. He often claims elections are being rigged, even before the results are known, and has waged battles against certain voting methods since he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden and falsely blamed it on widespread fraud.

Trump has focused particularly on mail voting, arguing without evidence that it’s insecure and invites fraud even as he has shifted his position on the issue given its popularity with voters, including Republicans. While fraud occurs, it’s rare, limited in scope and gets prosecuted.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Dozens of demonstrators rallied outside the state attorney’s office Saturday afternoon, calling on State Attorney Melissa Nelson to reopen the case against the 18-year-old accused of threatening voters with a machete in October.

Three months after the incident outside a Neptune Beach polling location, the state attorney’s office decided not to prosecute 18-year-old Caleb Williams. 

Now, Jacksonville advocacy groups and community activists have made it known loud and clear that they want Williams held accountable.

“Voter intimidation is still here, and we want it to stop,” said Northside Coalition of Jacksonville President Kelly Frazier. “It’s 2025 now, and we don’t want to hear more episodes of this.” 

On Oct. 29, Williams was arrested and charged with voter intimidation and suppression and aggravated assault for brandishing a machete outside a Neptune Beach polling location and targeting a 71-year-old and a 54-year-old woman, the Neptune Beach Police Department said. 

Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder and student activist, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday not for criminal activity, but for things he said. If President Donald Trump gets away with deporting him, as he intends, the danger is that more legal immigrants — possibly U.S. citizens as well — will be punished for exercising their First Amendment freedoms.

A 30-year-old Palestinian raised in Syria, Khalil came to the United States on a student visa in 2022 to pursue a master’s in public administration at Columbia University. He became a high-profile leader of the pro-Palestinian, antiwar movement on campus and attracted the ire of pro-Israel activists — some of whom called for his deportation last week.

On Monday, Trump, who campaigned against campus protests such as the ones that gripped Columbia last spring, bragged about Khalil’s detainment, warning on Truth Social that “this is the first arrest of many to come.”

However, Khalil has not been charged with a crime, and there has been no evidence suggesting he was involved in terrorism.

The U.S. House may soon vote on a bill with a seemingly innocuous name — the SAVE Act, as in “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.”

It is anything but innocuous — especially for the millions of Americans who could find themselves prevented from registering to vote if the SAVE Act is passed.

Ostensibly, the SAVE Act is aimed at preventing people who are in the country illegally from voting in U.S. elections — something that is so rare as to be nearly non-existent.

What its Republican sponsors don’t tell you is that the SAVE Act, with its requirement that people show proof of citizenship, could end up disenfranchising millions of Americans who are and always have been legal citizens of this country.

“It all sounds so reasonable,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio and a longtime advocate of voter rights. “But it has the potential to prevent so many people from registering to vote, through no fault of their own.”

Given the volume and magnitude of actions taken by the White House since Inauguration Day, it is understandable that most of America’s attention has been focused on the executive branch. What should not be lost in this flurry of activity, however, is legislation being advanced by the 119th Congress that could be just as consequential to the institution most fundamental in a representative democracy: the vote.  

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. It passed in the House in July of 2024 but did not advance in the Senate. Recently reintroduced by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the bill now has a heightened chance of success given partisan unity within government.  

The consequences of the SAVE Act belie its name by compromising access to the ballot for large swaths of the populace and complicating an already overly complicated process. Moreover, the act undermines the ideals of the “democratic experiment” begun nearly 250 years ago of a republican form of government — an experiment that, until recently, has trended toward expanding rather than restricting suffrage. 

After a cycle that delivered them full power in Washington, Republicans are still pushing to change federal election law — and some Democrats are sounding a renewed alarm.

A proposal that aims to bar noncitizens from voting could disenfranchise millions of American women and serve a larger strategy, Rep. Delia Ramirez argued Tuesday.

“The SAVE act is not an election security bill,” said the Illinois Democrat at a House Administration Committee member day hearing. “It’s part of an authoritarian playbook, including the funding freeze and the persecution of diverse cities, and it takes courage and moral clarity to stand against it.”

The legislation — known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — was marked up by the committee last Congress and passed the House, before fizzling in the Senate. It would require American voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and Democrats have lambasted the bill’s limitations on acceptable forms of identification, which they say would make it difficult for married women who have changed their last names to register to vote.

At a recent town hall in the exurbs of Atlanta, Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., faced a torrent of criticism from a woman who accused him of sponsoring legislation that would make it more difficult for married women like her to vote.  

She was talking about the Republican-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act. Clips of the town hall, where the woman told McCormick the bill was “voter suppression,” have since gone viral on social media.

If enacted, the proposed law would require people to present proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when they register to vote in federal elections. It’s designed to keep undocumented immigrants from voting, though it is already illegal and exceedingly rare for noncitizens to do so.

The bill was first introduced last year by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. It passed the Republican House but was never taken up for a vote in the closely divided Senate. Roy reintroduced the bill in January and, though it is likely to pass the House, it will again face an uphill battle in the Senate, where a handful of Democrats would need to support the measure.  

The SAVE Act is back, and it’s dangerous for democracy.

Unlike 2023, when the first national voter suppression law never reached Joe Biden’s desk, this version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act is on a fast track to Donald Trump.

If it passes, millions of married and divorced women  — Republican, independent and Democrat alike — will not be able to vote in federal elections.

All voters would face new hurdles. But birth certificate names are a key to this bill, and only one voting segment routinely changes their birth name: married women.

Under the SAVE Act (H.R. 22), people who register to vote or update their registration, even for something as minor as a change of address, will have to confirm their citizenship.

For most, that would require producing either a birth certificate or a passport.

However, roughly eight in 10 women take their husband’s surname when they marry, and many who divorce keep that name. As a result, their birth certificate name will not match their legal name.

The bill has nothing to say about citizens whose current legal name doesn’t match their birth name.

Federal Judges are allowing a legal challenge to South Florida’s congressional and Florida House districts to move forward.

But the three-Judge panel also said plaintiffs were only allowed to continue a challenge against eight of 10 districts originally called out in federal complaints.

The lawsuit ironically alleges the same motivations behind the cartography that Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed motivated him to veto a congressional map (P 0109) approved by the Legislature before his office submitted the map, which has been in place since 2022.

The lawsuit said Florida’s 26th, 27th and 28th Congressional Districts were all drawn motivated primarily by race. Notably, all three districts are currently represented by Republican Cuban Americans: U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balartof Hialeah, María Elvira Salazar of Coral Gables and Carlos Giménez of Miami-Dade, respectively.

The courts only will allow a legal challenge to CD 26, Díaz-Balart’s district. That notably spans from Immokalee in Collier County to Hialeah and Miami Beach in north Miami-Dade County.

As Florida enters a new election cycle, it’s essential to prioritize voter education.

As of Jan. 1, Florida’s vote-by-mail (VBM) rolls were officially reset under a relatively new law.

When in the past, voters who requested mail-in ballots in previous election cycles did not have to request them again for the following two election cycles, this law requires voters to formally request mail-in ballots after every federal election cycle. Therefore, all standing requests after the 2024 Elections have now been wiped out. The impact of this change has been immediate and staggering, with the number of voters set to receive mail-in ballots plunging to record lows.

In 2024 alone, more than 3 million Florida voters voted by mail out of over 3.5 million Florida voters who had requested a mail ballot. That number will now reset, and every voter wishing to vote by mail in elections this year must make sure they request their ballot ahead of the applicable deadline. The implications are even more concerning with two congressional Special Elections scheduled for April 1. Voter turnout is at risk, particularly in a state where mail-in ballots have historically been a welcome resource.

Proponents of the VBM reset justified the change as necessary to combat voter fraud and enhance security around our elections. They framed the policy as a proactive step to secure Florida’s elections despite the absence of any significant evidence of widespread mail-in ballot fraud in the state.ogress.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act could prevent many married women from being able to register to vote.

The act, reintroduced by Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy, is intended to amend the National Voter Registration Act to ensure that all people registering to vote are U.S. citizens. It would require people to present in-person documentation as proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Much of the documentation listed under the SAVE Act is based on having a birth certificate that matches the person registering to vote. However, as many as 69 million married women in the United States have changed their legal name since getting married, meaning their name does not match their birth certificate, per the Center for American Progress.

The United States is a democracy, meaning all citizens, with the exception of children and some felons, have the right to vote. The SAVE Act would make it significantly harder for married women, as well as many other members of the population, to exercise their right to vote as Americans.

In the months before last year’s election, Alabama removed valid voters from the rolls after wrongly tagging them as noncitizens. Tennessee’s secretary of state told 14,000 voters they had to prove their citizenship. And officials debated whether hundreds of thousands of Arizonans could vote in state races after they discovered they were missing citizenship documentation.

More episodes like those are likely to lie ahead throughout the country.

Republicans in Congress and state legislatures are charging forward with plans to require Americans to prove they are citizens as they say they seek to crack down on noncitizen voting — an almost nonexistent problem.

Voting by noncitizens is already illegal in all state and federal elections, and requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship could make it harder for millions of legitimate voters to cast ballots. Driver’s licenses and other state IDs can be used only for people who provided proof of citizenship to get those IDs, so some people will need to track down other documents.

Many people do not have ready access to birth certificates or passports, including women who changed their names when they got married, rural residents who live far from government offices where birth records are kept, and people who lost documents in fires or floods.

Legislative Republicans have clashed with Gov. Ron DeSantis over how best to complement President Donald Trump’s campaign against undocumented immigration, but will they resist the governor’s other priorities?

Take his reforms to Florida’s citizen initiative process.

Three months after he successfully organized enough opposition to stop proposed constitutional amendments to legalize adult use of cannabis and enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution, the governor wants to change the citizen petition process to address what he calls “ballot initiative integrity.”

Among those proposals are eliminating third-party collection of petition forms and tightening signature verification, changes that voting rights advocates say could gut the citizen initiative process.

That appears a political loser, however — even among Florida Republicans.

A survey of 600 likely 2026 Republican voters by Fabrizio & Associates, the pollster for Donald Trump, shows that rank-and-file GOP voters do not approve. The poll was first published in Florida Politics.

When asked whether they support eliminating “the ability for supporters of constitutional initiatives to collect petitions signed by Floridians in order to get the initiative on the ballot, and making it almost impossible for citizens to vote on changes to Florida’s constitution,” 55% of Republicans said they did not, with just 17% supporting the idea.

So far in this year’s legislative sessions, three states have introduced state voting rights acts. If the bills pass, Arizona, Colorado and Maryland will join the eight other states that already have VRAs: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

California was the first state to pass a voting rights act in 2002, and Illinois followed in 2011. Legislative action on state VRAs picked up in the late 2010s—between 2018 and 2024, six states enacted them. These laws apply to local jurisdictions and commonly include extensive provisions for language assistance, preclearance by a state entity for any proposed voting procedure changes, protections against vote dilution, and guidelines for determining what is a violation of voting rights.

Many state VRAs are modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among other things, the federal law prohibits race-based denial of the right to vote and protects the voting rights of people with disabilities or limited English proficiency. The VRA also plays an important role in redistricting.

Federal VRA litigation involves complex factors that are not written in the statute but have been interpreted by courts over time. Many state VRAs include these details in their statutory text instead of leaving it up to case law. For example, state VRAs commonly require evidence that voters are polarized along racial lines to prove the government has violated the law—a tenet adopted by decades of litigation in federal cases.

TALLAHASSEE — For years, Floridians have used the ballot initiative process to pass popular measures that have been otherwise stymied by the state’s political leaders.

That process is how Florida got its $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter rights restoration. It’s the reason why Florida’s governor and lawmakers have term limits. 

But new proposals from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office could make it nearly impossible for the state’s residents to amend their constitution. 

The governor’s office sent several proposals to Florida’s legislative staff earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for the Florida Senate.

Among the ideas shared was a plan to overhaul how amendment sponsors can collect petitions to get initiatives on the ballot. No longer would groups be able to use third-party organizations to collect signatures from passersby outside grocery stores or the tax collector’s office. 

Instead, DeSantis’ office proposed that people could only complete a petition in person at an elections office, or by requesting a petition in a process similar to vote-by-mail.

President Trump on Monday revoked an executive order by former President Joe Biden that calls for federal agencies to promote voter registration.

The move comes after Republican officials ramped up efforts to turn the 2021 order into a partisan flash point ahead of the 2024 election.

ELECTIONS 

Republicans are turning Biden’s voter registration order into a partisan flash point

GOP officials claimed — with no substantial evidence — that through this order, the Biden administration overstepped its authority and tried to generate more Democratic voters.

Federal laws, however, ban federal employees from favoring one political party over another when promoting voter registration. And the now-rescinded order covered longstanding federal agencies’ voter registration efforts that are authorized under federal laws — including the State and Defense Departments helping eligible military members and other U.S. citizens living abroad vote.

Biden’s order led to new voter registration guides, mailers, updated websites and programs such as Veteran Affairs facilities in Kentucky and Michigandistributing and helping eligible voters fill out registration forms.

The below-signed organizations write to express our concern about the impact of Hurricane Helene on Floridians’ ability to successfully vote in the 2024 General Election, for which voting by mail has already begun. We appreciate the issuing of Executive Order Number 24-212, which will provide Supervisors of Elections much-needed flexibility in Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, and Taylor Counties. We respectfully urge you to supplement this with additional action as deadlines such as the voter registration deadline rapidly approach. 

The destruction caused by Hurricane Helene has displaced thousands of Floridians and significantly disrupted election administration in affected counties. Unable to return to their homes and struggling to recover, Floridians are forced to navigate and identify alternative means of voting.¹ Election officials in several counties have reported challenges arising from displaced voters and displaced poll workers, as well as damage and disruptions to voting sites and other election infrastructure.² Supervisors of Elections need extended time and flexibility to solve for the widespread damage and displacement as a result of Hurricane Helene.³

In light of the above, we respectfully request that the Governor and Secretary of State take the following emergency actions to ensure voting access for all Floridians.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – As Floridians and Georgians juggle storm recovery and preparation in the midst of a historically turbulent hurricane season, time is running out for those hoping to register to vote.

Monday is the voter registration deadline for both Florida and Georgia. It means Monday is the last day people in both states can sign up to vote for the next U.S. president and all other races this November.

Anyone who registers after Monday will not be able to vote until after the November election.

Some voting rights groups are worried that the deadline comes at a time when people may not be able to prioritize voter registration.

“People are not focused on getting registered to vote, understandably, and they have not been focused on getting registered to vote for a few weeks now,” said Larry Hannan, the communications director for State Voices Florida.

State Voices Florida and more than a dozen other groups asked Governor Ron DeSantis to “indefinitely delay” the voter registration deadline, leaving more time to register.

The governor declined on Monday morning.

“We’re happy to do it, but we’re not going to change any registration deadline,” the governor said. “You can register (Monday), and there is no reason to open that up.”

Tallahassee, FL – Today is the deadline to register to vote in Florida. But many communities across the state are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton is projected to make landfall Wednesday on the central Gulf Coast. Due to these unique circumstances, a broad coalition of voting rights organizations are calling for the State to indefinitely extend the deadline to register to vote in all Florida counties until Milton has passed and everything has stabilized. 

It is unreasonable to expect people to focus on registering to vote with multiple storms wreaking havoc in Florida. Floridians who are still recovering from Hurricane Helene are today preparing for Milton; they can not and should not be expected to have to meet a voter registration deadline today.  It is unfair to disenfranchise newly arrived Floridians, people who have just reached the legal age to vote, and others who need to register to vote in Florida due to the impacts of natural disasters that are beyond their control. We therefore urge Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Cord Byrd, and others to pause the deadline. 

The below-signed organizations write to express our concern about the impact of Hurricane Helene on Floridians’ ability to successfully vote in the 2024 General Election, for which voting by mail has already begun. We appreciate the issuing of Executive Order Number 24-212, which will provide Supervisors of Elections much-needed flexibility in Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, and Taylor Counties. We respectfully urge you to supplement this with additional action as deadlines such as the voter registration deadline rapidly approach. 

The destruction caused by Hurricane Helene has displaced thousands of Floridians and significantly disrupted election administration in affected counties. Unable to return to their homes and struggling to recover, Floridians are forced to navigate and identify alternative means of voting.¹ Election officials in several counties have reported challenges arising from displaced voters and displaced poll workers, as well as damage and disruptions to voting sites and other election infrastructure.² Supervisors of Elections need extended time and flexibility to solve for the widespread damage and displacement as a result of Hurricane Helene.³

In light of the above, we respectfully request that the Governor and Secretary of State take the following emergency actions to ensure voting access for all Floridians.

In other disability rights news from Merrick Garland, Kristen Clarke, and friends at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the federal agency issued a press release earlier this month wherein it shared a slew of “new and updated voting rights resources for voters and election officials.”

According to the DOJ, part of the update includes two new information guides, along with updates to five others, published by the Civil Rights Division. The DOJ notes this work is in accordance with its “longstanding practice” to update resources in election years. The sharing of new information is done with the intention of “[ensuring] that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation, or criminal activity in the election process, and to ensure that our elections are secure and free from foreign malign influence and interference.”

More resources will be provided in the coming months, the DOJ said.

“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, the right from which all others flow,” Attorney General Garland said in a statement for the announcement. 

Vote.org is launching its largest-ever voter registration campaign, aimed at adding 8 million voters for the 2024 cycle, the nonpartisan voter engagement organization announced Friday. 

“With near daily reporting about young people and people of color feeling disillusioned with this year’s elections, a nationwide movement to engage and help them register to vote has never been more important,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, in a statement. 

The group is “putting our full might behind this effort for one reason: the stakes for our democracy have never been higher,” Hailey said. 

Vote.org is launching its largest-ever voter registration campaign, aimed at adding 8 million voters for the 2024 cycle, the nonpartisan voter engagement organization announced Friday. 

“With near daily reporting about young people and people of color feeling disillusioned with this year’s elections, a nationwide movement to engage and help them register to vote has never been more important,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, in a statement. 

The group is “putting our full might behind this effort for one reason: the stakes for our democracy have never been higher,” Hailey said. 

Vote.org is launching its largest-ever voter registration campaign, aimed at adding 8 million voters for the 2024 cycle, the nonpartisan voter engagement organization announced Friday. 

“With near daily reporting about young people and people of color feeling disillusioned with this year’s elections, a nationwide movement to engage and help them register to vote has never been more important,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, in a statement. 

The group is “putting our full might behind this effort for one reason: the stakes for our democracy have never been higher,” Hailey said. 

In 2018, Kenia Flores, who is blind, voted by mail in North Carolina because she was attending college out of state. Had she been able to vote in person, she could have used an accessible machine. But voting absentee, her only option was to tell another person her choices and have them fill out her ballot. She had no way to verify what they did.

Dessa Cosma, who uses a wheelchair, arrived at her precinct in Michigan that year to find that all the voting booths were standing height. A poll worker suggested she complete her ballot on the check-in table and got annoyed when Ms. Cosma said she had a right to complete it privately. Another worker intervened and found a private space.

That night, Ms. Cosma — the executive director of Detroit Disability Power, where Ms. Flores is a voting access and election protection fellow — vented to the group’s advisory committee and discovered that “every one of them had a story about lack of ability to vote easily, and we all had different disabilities,” she said. “It made me realize, ‘Oh wow, even more than I realized, this is a significant problem.’”

ORLANDO, Fla. – A new form streamlines vote-by-mail ballot requests across Florida, and should now be available at all county supervisors of elections offices.

The Orange County Supervisor of Elections office said it had the new form available on Friday ahead of the state’s April 17 deadline to have the form available for voters. Before this form, different counties had different forms or ways to request.

The new form includes prompts for all the information you will need to make that request, including a voter’s Florida driver’s license number, identification card number or last four digits of their social security number.

If you have not requested a vote-by-mail ballot yet, you must fill out the new form through your county’s elections office, you can’t use an old version. The request is good for all elections this year and in 2025.

More than two years after lawmakers redrew the state’s legislative maps, a group of Tampa Bay-area residents Wednesday challenged the constitutionality of two Senate districts that they say “dilute” the power of Black voters.

Attorneys for five residents of Tampa and St. Petersburg filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa alleging that Senate District 16 and Senate District 18 are gerrymandered and violate constitutional equal-protection rights.

District 16, which is represented by Sen. Daryl Rouson, a Black Democrat from St. Petersburg, crosses Tampa Bay to include parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. White Republican Nick DiCeglie of Indian Rocks Beach represents District 18, which is made up of part of Pinellas County.

Voting in Michigan will be easier for many people this fall than it was four years ago. There will be nine days of early voting. All mail ballots will have prepaid return postage. And every community will have at least one drop box for absentee ballots because of a measure adopted by voters with the support of the state’s top Democrats.

Those casting ballots in North Carolina, where Republicans enjoy a veto-proof legislative majority, will see dramatic changes in the opposite direction. For the first time in a presidential election, voters there will have to show an ID. More votes are expected to be thrown out because of new absentee ballot return deadlines. And courts will soon decide whether to allow a law to go into effect that would reshape the state’s elections boards and could result in fewer early-voting sites.

Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party has eviscerated the mail-in voting advantage party leaders spent two decades developing. Now, with the presidential primary season nearing its end, we have evidence that GOP legislators’ efforts to appease their king by making it more difficult to vote by mail aren’t helping their party and are hurting him. 

So, I wonder: Is this all part of Trump’s endgame? 

Before we get there, remember the 2022 Georgia Senate run-off, when Trump kept arguing that the election was rigged? Republican turnout dropped, and early and absentee ballots helped Democrats flip the seat with Raphael Warnock’s election.

Plaintiffs and legal experts are previewing the status of the Hispanic Federation v. Byrd trial 

A federal trial is underway for a case that alleges Florida’s voter registration law infringes on political speech and civic engagement. 

The law, Senate Bill 7050, was passed in 2023, and it bans non-U.S. citizens from working or volunteering for third-party voter registration organizations(3PVROs).

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Dēmos, and Arnold & Porter on behalf of Hispanic Federation, Poder Latinx, and individual clients.

On a special episode (first released on March 31, 2024) of The Excerpt podcast:

At the State of the Union, President Biden called on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This bill would update the Voting Rights Act of 1965, strengthening legal protections against discriminatory voting policies and practices. The act has since been hampered by Supreme Court cases that removed pre-clearance provisions and made it harder to sue to stop discriminatory practices. Marc Elias, an attorney with Elias Law Group and an outspoken advocate of voter protection and fair elections, joins The Excerpt to talk about the challenges voters across the country are facing and describe his efforts to guarantee equal access to the ballot.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, April 1, a bench trial will begin in a federal legal challenge to Florida’s latest omnibus voter suppression law, which was signed into law last May by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Among many so-called “election integrity” provisions, the challenged law places limitations on voter assistance options for requesting a mail-in ballot and imposes burdensome requirements and penalties on third-party voter registration organizations (3PVROs) that engage and turn out eligible Floridians to vote.  

Immediately following the enactment of the sweeping anti-voting statute known as Senate Bill 7050, voting and civil rights groups filed three separate federal lawsuits challenging various aspects of the legislation.

Wisconsin for the first time this year will begin requiring political advertisers to disclose the use of content generated by artificial intelligence or face financial penalties. But the battleground state, one that played a critical role in the last two elections, is not alone. 

An increasing number of states have advanced A.I.-related legislation to combat attempts to mislead voters during the 2024 election, according to a new analysis by the Voting Rights Lab, a national voting rights organization. 

Voting Rights Lab said it was tracking over 100 bills in 40 state legislatures, amid some high-profile cases of “deep-fake” video technology and computer-generated avatars and voices being used in political campaigns and advertisements.

One of the more glaring examples happened in New Hampshire, where a criminal investigation was opened after voters there received robocalls mimicking President Biden’s voice and urging Democrats to not vote in the state’s primary in January.

The guidelines were first established in 2022 after reports of election worker threats and potential poll worker interference.

The Brennan Center for Justice, along with the group All Voting is Local, has updated its guides for election officials in swing states aimed at blocking “rogue” poll workers from interfering in elections.

The new guide is an updated version of guidance issued in 2022 created in response to reports that election deniers who believed falsehoods about the outcome of the 2020 election were being recruited to work as poll workers across the country.

The updated guidance, which explains laws preventing intimidation, harassment and improper influence over voters, focuses on Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Each guide is specifically written to include applicable state laws and other information aimed at ensuring a smooth, fair and free election process.

Georgia, with its long history of the suppression of Black voters, has been ground zero for fights about voting rights laws for decades. The state has often seen stark differences in turnout between white and nonwhite communities, with the latter typically voting at a much lower rate.

But not always: In the 2012 election, when Barack Obama won a second term in the White House, the turnout rate for Black voters under 38 in Lowndes County — a Republican-leaning county in southern Georgia — was actually four percentage points higher than the rate for white voters of a similar age.

It proved to be temporary. According to new research by Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., by 2020, turnout for younger white voters in Lowndes was 14 percentage points higher than for Black voters of the same age.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ Voting Record, which reflects the recorded votes taken by every senator and representative on the legislative priorities of The Leadership Conference and its coalition members, found that last year was one of the few first sessions of a Congress in recent history in which neither chamber passed meaningful civil rights legislation as scored by our Voting Record. This troubling finding is, in large part, due to a deeply divided Congress lacking in bipartisan support for civil rights legislation. It comes as our democracy faces a consequential year and amidst ongoing attacks on the hard-won rights and protections — and the diversity and inclusion policies and programs — that make us a more cohesive, effective, and fair society for everyone.

Since the Supreme Court handed down its Shelby County v. Holder decision in 2013, striking down a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act, scholars and voting rights advocates have tried to capture the impact of the decision on voters of color.

Before the decision, counties and states with a history of discriminating against voters of color, as determined by a formula in the law, had to submit proposed changes to their voting laws and procedures to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval, a process known as preclearance. The provision was interpreted to cover changes big and small, ranging from the relocation of a polling place to new voter ID laws or political redistricting.

In the Shelby County case, the court struck down the formula, leaving those jurisdictions free to enact changes. Congress has so far failed to put a new formula in place.

For those looking to raise doubts about American elections, it’s becoming clear that a key 2024 voting boogeyman will be immigration. The false notion that undocumented immigrants are affecting federal elections has been floating around for over 100 years, experts say, but this year, due in part to an increase in migrants at the southern U.S. border, the idea could have new potency. The narratives are being pushed by prominent right-wing figures including Cleta Mitchell, a former adviser to Donald Trump, along with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself. NPR acquired a two-page memo Mitchell has been circulating laying out “the threat of non-citizen voting in 2024.”

Voters in particular states will encounter stricter voter ID requirements when they head to the polls as part of a wave of in-person voter ID laws enacted across the country during the last four years. Eight states have enacted voter ID laws since the 2020 election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Wyoming. The rash of new laws affects 29 million adults. One in 6 voters live in anticipated 2024 battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — with new ID requirements.

State lawmakers across the U.S. concerned about the integrity of elections ahead of the 2024 presidential vote are proposing and enacting an unprecedented number of laws to restrict — and, in some cases, expand — voting rights and ballot access.

State lawmakers across the U.S. concerned about the integrity of elections ahead of the 2024 presidential vote are proposing and enacting an unprecedented number of laws to restrict — and, in some cases, expand — voting rights and ballot access.

In the shadow of the 2020 presidential election, states enacted more restrictive and expansive laws related to voting in 2021 and 2023 individually than in any other years in the last decade, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York-based civil rights group. Because of this, voters in 27 states will face new requirements that weren’t in place when they voted in 2020.

TALLAHASSEE —  All Voting is Local’s Florida State Director Brad Ashwell issued the following statement in response to Wednesday’s vote by Hillsborough County commissioners to cut the county’s election budget by $200,000, despite the budget already being approved:

“This sizable cut to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections budget sets a dangerous precedent for elections in Florida if county officials can arbitrarily slash necessary funding whenever they want. County commissioners are making a very short-sighted decision by justifying the budget cut due to outreach by the supervisor of election to inactive voters. 

Florida’s voting laws now require voters who wish to request a vote-by-mail ballot to do so after every election cycle. The new law requires that every voter who requested a vote-by-mail ballot before November 8, 2022 must do so again if they wish to receive their mail ballots for 2023 municipal elections, primaries and the 2024 general election. 

In order to apply for vote-by-mail before Florida’s statutory 12-day deadline ahead of upcoming election periods, make sure to go to your county’s web page listed below.

If you need assistance with obtaining a Florida ID or driver’s license, contact VoteRiders at 1-866-ID-2-VOTE / 1-866-432-8683.

The Biden administration is partnering with voting rights groups to try to boost turnout among key voting blocs this November, in what officials say is a move to counter GOP efforts to restrict voting. 

Why it matters: The move comes as House Republicans are refusing to consider measures to improve voting access pushed by Democrats — and after conservative state lawmakers nationwide introduced more than 300 bills last year that included voting restrictions. 

• Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing the plan Tuesday.
• “The president and vice president are doing everything they can to protect democracy, including by calling on all of the federal agencies to do what they can to protect the right to vote,” said Erica Songer, counsel to the vice president.

Zoom in: The Democratic plan includes a call to reinforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has been weakened by recent Supreme Court decisions. Harris also is announcing new strategies that federal agencies will use to encourage millions of Americans to vote in November.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Eric Fey is bracing for Election Day snarls because of a decision his state made last year.  Missouri pulled out of a collaboration known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which helps states keep voter rolls accurate — such as flagging when people move. Fey, the Democratic director of elections in St. Louis County, expects delays when people discover at the polls that the address on their voter registration record is incorrect. “More people will be doing change-of-address forms at polling places and at the election office on Election Day,” said Fey, who is also president of a statewide local election authorities group. “At least for those voters, it takes longer, and there is a longer line.” 

RENO, Nev. ‒ Deanna Spikula lasted five years but quit amid relentless harassment, baseless accusations of treason, and death threats. Her replacement lasted just over 500 days- and quit a few weeks after someone sent fentanyl-laced envelopes to her colleagues. Now it’s Cari-Ann Burgess’ turn in the crucible known as the Washoe County Registrar of Voters office, where every one of the 18 people who worked there during the 2020 election has since quit. Statewide, almost every election administrator has left in the past 3½ years. “You have to be somewhat crazy to do what we do,” said Burgess, who in January began serving as the county’s interim chief elections official. “The negative publicity, the harassment.”

Runoff elections for Primary contests won’t be returning to Florida any time soon. House Speaker Paul Renner said legislation that emerged last week is dead for the Regular Session.

“We had a conversation. It was a short conversation,” Renner told reporters, acknowledging the vehement opposition from many Republicans to the bill (PCB SAC 24-06).

The bill would have brought back runoffs for Primary Elections, which Florida held until 2002. In any Primary contest where no single candidate received 50% or more, the top two vote-getters would square off in a second Primary to see who would go on to the General Election. The change wouldn’t have taken effect until the 2026 election cycle.

The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has unveiled another election bill that would further restrict where voters can drop off mail-in ballots and also force party primary candidates into runoffs if they don’t get more than 50% of the vote.

The bill is just the latest in a series of controversial bills since the 2020 election aimed at mail-in voting, all of which have come under fire from Democrats who say they are designed to suppress turnout.

But this proposal also brought immediate pushback from some members of the GOP for what they claimed was an attempt to prevent them from winning primaries without garnering a majority as candidates can do now.

In the conspiracy-soaked aftermath of the 2020 election, far-right activists clamored to inspect ballots based on elaborate — and false — theories. In Georgia, election deniers pushed for a review that might detect counterfeit ballots because they were not folded, appeared to be marked by a machine or were printed on different card stock. In Arizona, auditors were on the hunt for bamboo fibers in ballots to prove that they had fraudulently came from Asia. Those theories were roundly rebuked, without a shred — or fiber — of evidence to support them. National attention from voters and the mainstream news media eventually shifted to the 2024 election.

Tallahassee, FL – A State Affairs Committee elections bill filed Monday introduced legislation that would prohibit drop boxes for people to turn in their absentee or vote by mail ballots unless they are in the physical offices of county supervisors of elections or at an early voting polling place during hours when early voting can occur. If passed, PCB SAC 6 would ban almost all drop boxes that have worked effectively and safely in previous Florida elections.

The drop boxes have not gotten the attention of other aspects of the bill. But State Voices Florida condemns the banning of drop boxes and urges all legislators in the House and Senate to oppose it.  It will make it harder to vote in Florida, but won’t make our elections more secure.

A strong and healthy democracy reflects the will of the people. It gives everyone an equal opportunity to participate and have their vote counted, regardless of race, gender, wealth, or social status. It ensures that all voters have the ability to advocate for themselves and their communities.   It depends on all of us to take part and strengthen our democracy together, and science has a crucial role to play. The science of elections can help us identify evidence-based best practices to improve voter access, increase public trust in the election process, and ensure fair representation so that elected officials can be held accountable to the interests of their voters.  Past UCS work has called out the role of disinformation in weakening our democracy, the dangers of artificial intelligence in elections, and how voting restrictions harm public health. The 2024 election will have consequential outcomes and we want to ensure that everyone eligible can vote and

When Americans head to the polls this year, voters in 38 states — more than ever before — will have to confront a maze of voter ID laws that request or require a specific form of identification to cast a ballot that counts. Throughout my career as a voting rights litigator, I’ve repeatedly seen the impact of tightening ID restrictions on voters. The myth perpetuated by some legislators that “everyone has an ID” is simply not based in reality. I’ve advocated for students who couldn’t vote using their student ID, people who lack transportation to access an ID-issuing office and those who can’t afford to obtain the underlying documents like a birth certificate that they need to secure an ID. During one trial I litigated, we actually had to request special permission from the judge for a witness to even be able to enter the courthouse because they lacked the ID required

TALLAHASSEE — While saying Florida has repeatedly changed laws to “target” ways Black voters cast ballots, a federal judge Thursday closed the door on allegations that key parts of a 2021 elections law were unconstitutional. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a 17-page order after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year overturned a ruling in which he found the law improperly discriminated against Black voters. The Atlanta-based appeals court sent the case back to Walker to address two major issues. Walker, in Thursday’s order, appeared to criticize the appeals court for “reweighing” facts in the case. But he entered a judgment in favor of the state, concluding that plaintiffs had not met a legal test for showing that the changes in the law “unduly burden” First Amendment and equal protection rights.

State Voices Florida was proud to take part in a rally in support of the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Voting Rights Act at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday, February 7. We want to extend our thanks to Equal Ground and  the NAACP of Florida for planning and putting on this event. It was a joyous occasion with many different organizations coming together in solidarity.

While it has no chance of passing this session, it will be the most important piece of voting rights legislation in the history of Florida whenever it does become law.

The legislation is named in honor of Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore, two of Florida’s most important voting rights advocates who died championing the right to vote for Black Floridians.

State Voices joined with other supporters outside of the Florida Supreme Court in support of Amendment 4. This is the abortion ballot initiative that would legalize reproductive freedom in the Florida Constitution. The Florida Supreme Court reviewed the ballot language on Wednesday, February 7. As Communications Director Larry Hannan explains in the video below, the Supreme Court reviewed whether the ballot language was clear for voters.

Larry was one of the many who showed up for the Supreme Court oral argument to show their support for reproductive freedom. Now that the ballot signature requirement has been achieved we still have the challenge of getting people to the polls in November. Polling shows that the majority of Floridians support Amendment 4, but we must get to 60% to win.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Florida laws currently require residents to provide an extensive amount of information to register to vote. Some activists say those requirements are voter suppression, and they’re pushing state lawmakers to change those rules. Hundreds turned out at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday to support HB 1035 and SB 1522, which aim to remove some of those expansive requirements. Protesters listened to Civil Rights leaders speak near the steps of the Capitol Building. The advocates said they are hoping to change laws that currently limit who can drop off ballots and when ballots can be turned in. Other laws advocates are targeting impose fines on some voters who miss certain deadlines.

What: An Invitation from Equal Ground, Florida Rising, SPLC  Action Fund, All Voting is Local, ACLU Florida, and the NAACP to a Press Conference and Voting Rights Rally calling for the passage of the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Voting Rights Act (Senate Bill 1522 and House Bill 1035). When: February 7, 2024 at noon. Where:  House Plaza (north side) at the Capitol, Tallahassee, FL. Featured Speakers: Senator Geraldine Thompson and Representative Lavon Bracy-Davis, sponsors of the legislation. Please RSVP here.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to reconsider its decision that would prevent private groups from suing under a key section of the Voting Rights Act, prompting a potential fight before the U.S. Supreme Court over a ruling that civil rights groups say erodes the law aimed at prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals denied the request for the case to go before the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a panel ruled 2-1 last year that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the Arkansas State Conference NAACP, which are challenging Arkansas’ new state House districts under the law, have argued last year’s ruling would upend decades of precedent and would remove a key tool for voters to stand up for their

High turnout in previous elections has caused states like Florida to take steps to reduce access to voting. As the 2024 election approaches, organizers are working hard to preserve voting rights in states that have made it drastically more difficult to vote.  After record voter turnout in 2020, several states, including Georgia, Florida, and Iowa, took steps to make voting more difficult. Some reduced drop box access, and others limited vote-by-mail or shortened voting times. Voting rights organizations across the country are fighting to curb the impact of these laws by challenging them in court while also trying to help voters navigate obstacles that keep them from exercising their democratic right.

A federal judge stopped the enforcement of a Florida law in July that bans non-U.S. citizens from collecting or handling voter registrations. Now, the voting rights advocates are preparing to defend their temporary victory in an appellate court on Thursday. Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Attorney General Ashley Moody filed an appeal of U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Walker’s decision to stop the enforcement of the law just days after it went into effect. The appeal is set to be heard on Jan. 25 in the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – As democratic ideals and values continue to face attacks from extremist politicians, Senator Geraldine Thompson (D-Orlando) and Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis (D-Orlando) proudly announce legislation to protect democracy and ensure equal access at the ballot box: the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Florida Voting Rights Act (SB 1522/HB 1035).

Tallahassee, FL – Last week Senate Bill 1752 was introduced. This legislation would limit access to vote by mail, which is now available to any registered voter who requests it. State Voices Florida opposes this legislation. We believe everyone should have the right to vote, and voting should be simple and easy. SB 1752 will make it more difficult for all Floridians to vote regardless of their politics.

A senator in Florida is pushing a bill that would make it more difficult to vote by mail.  Currently, people who want to vote by mail in the state of Florida simply register to vote and request a mail-in ballot.  However, Senate Bill 1752, filed by state Sen. Blaise Ingolia, would change that system with one word: eligibility. The bill says a qualified absent voter may vote by mail if, on election day and during early in-person voting, the absent voter expects to be: It’s a move that Ramon Perez, the executive director of the nonprofit organization Digital Democracy Project, believes would limit access to voting.

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) – A U.S. government report on Monday found that hackers linked to Russia and China targeted some election systems during the 2022 midterms, but found no evidence that foreign governments compromised the vote. The U.S. Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security issued a public report concluding that no foreign government or agent undermined the security or integrity of election systems. The report found that pro-Russian activist hackers claimed to have temporarily restricted access to the website of a state election office. Hackers the United States accused of having links to China also scanned both election related and non-election related state government websites, the report found.

TALLAHASSEE — Voting-rights groups Wednesday night asked the Florida Supreme Court to take up a battle about the constitutionality of a congressional redistricting plan and to quickly decide the case as the 2024 elections loom. Attorneys for the groups and other plaintiffs argued in a brief that the Supreme Court should reject a Dec. 1 ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal that upheld the plan, which Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature in 2022.

Progressive advocacy groups in Arkansas on Monday asked a full federal appeals court to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling that private groups can’t sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the Arkansas State Conference NAACP asked for the case to go before the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a panel ruled 2-1 last month that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation that would allow people convicted of a felony to vote in federal elections, a proposal that if enacted could restore the voting rights of millions of people in U.S. elections. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont submitted the legislation, named the Inclusive Democracy Act, on Tuesday which would guarantee the right to vote in federal elections for all citizens regardless of their criminal record.

WASHINGTON — Kaylie Martinez-Ochoa arrived at an elementary school at 5 a.m. on Election Day barely awake for duty as a poll worker in northern Virginia. The 22-year-old recent college graduate spent hours at the polling site earlier this month helping check in hundreds of voters. Despite the exhausting day, Martinez-Ochoa plans to do it again in 2024 and hopes more young people will join the pool of much-needed poll workers.

It has been more than a year since Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the arrests of 20 people across the state who allegedly voted illegally in 2020 elections. DeSantis touted the arrests as cracking down on election fraud, a national hot-button issue for Republicans after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election and his subsequent false claims of voter fraud. However, not long after the arrests were announced, judges started dismissing cases, ruling that the Office of Statewide Prosecution did not have jurisdiction.

A Florida appeals court upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’ congressional redistricting map, finding a lower state court should have dismissed a lawsuit challenging North Florida’s districts. Even though DeSantis’ lawyers admitted his map violated the state constitution by diminishing Black voting power, the First District Court of Appeal said state voting protections shouldn’t apply to a Jacksonville-to-Tallahassee congressional district ordered by the Florida Supreme Court last decade.

Today is Giving Tuesday, a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities, and that is what we hope to do, transform communities. State Voices Florida is a  statewide civic engagement organization committed to bringing together progressive Non Partisan 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,

The 2024 presidential election is a full year away – and many of the rules that will govern the pivotal contest have already been written. The past three years make up one of the most prolific periods for election legislation in American history. Over 560 new laws governing our elections – many of them containing pages and pages of changes – have become law in states all across the country.

Andrea Mercado, the executive director of Florida Rising, a nonpartisan nonprofit that leads civic engagement and helps to educate and register voters in Black and Latino communities, is just as blunt in her assessment of the leading GOP contender. “(Trump) built a campaign stoking racial animus with a promise to deliver solely for white working-class voters, and we saw corporations and the rich get richer and others hurt in the process,” Mercado said. “If he wins, we enter a new chapter in American history, as his playbook is no friend to marginalized people.”

A divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision that contradicts decades of precedent and could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires political maps to include districts where minority populations’ preferred candidates can win elections.

In the last decade, the U.S. overall and the South specifically have become more racially diverse, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. An analysis from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found that racially-diverse states governed by Republicans are more likely to implement restrictive voting policies. And three of the 10 states that had the highest diversity index in 2020 are in the South: Florida, Georgia, and Texas.  All three are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures that have passed restrictive voting laws disproportionately affecting communities of color. So far this year, at least 14 states have implemented laws making it more difficult to cast a ballotthat will be in place for the 2024 election.

Last fall, the Movement Advancement Project released The ID Divide: How barriers to ID impact different communities and affect everyone. The analysis outlines in grave detail how barriers to obtaining IDs can impact one’s daily life, including voting, which communities are most harmed by restrictive policies and the ways that policymakers can address systemic inequities and barriers that make IDs inaccessible for too many Americans. Photo by Judson McCranie