TALLAHASSEE – After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a major election bill into law Wednesday, legal battles over new restrictions on voter registration groups immediately began.
Organizations such as the Florida League of Women Voters and the NAACP filed two federal lawsuits arguing that the restrictions violate First Amendment rights and will harm efforts to target black and Hispanic voters.
The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill (SB 7050) last month and was signed by DeSantis on Wednesday, hours before he formally announced he would run for president in 2024. The bill focuses largely on placing additional restrictions on “third-party” voter registration groups, including dramatically increasing fines for legal violations and preventing -US citizens from processing registration requests.
“These onerous, overbroad and vague requirements do not serve and cannot be justified by any compelling or legitimate state interest,” said a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund.
“The sole purpose, and indeed the sole effect, of the challenged provisions is to limit the ability of (third-party registration groups) such as (the League of Women Voters) to register Florida citizens eligible to vote and, in doing so, persuade them to action by participating in the electoral process”.
Republican supporters, however, have argued that the changes are designed to strengthen election security and protect information submitted by voters.
“There is nothing more sacred than our vote, and in this state, when it comes to our elections, we want to be very clear: It should be easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Rep. John Snyder, R- Stuart. , he said before the House passed the bill on April 28.
DeSantis’ approval of the bill Wednesday and the resulting lawsuits marked the beginning of another chapter in years of political and legal wrangling over changes to Florida’s election laws. Republican leaders in Florida and across the country have repeatedly pushed for vote swings after former President Donald Trump lost his 2020 re-election bid.
The lawsuits, which were filed in federal court in Tallahassee, seek injunctive relief against the disputing parties of the bill and allege violations of First Amendment, due process and equal protection rights. While the League of Women Voters filed one lawsuit, the other was filed by a coalition of groups including the NAACP, Disability Rights Florida and Alianza for Progress.
The League of Women Voters case names Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Attorney General Ashley Moody as defendants. The other lawsuit names Byrd, Moody and the county’s 67 supervisors of elections as defendants.
One issue underlying the lawsuits is that the plaintiffs say voter registration groups play an important role in registering black and Hispanic voters. Black voters in particular are a key constituency of the Democratic Party.
The lawsuit filed by the coalition of groups alleges that the voter registration restrictions “were intentionally enacted, at least in part, with a racially discriminatory intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters and to have the individual and collective effect to deny, reduce or suppress”. the right to vote of eligible voters by race, ethnicity or color.”
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Among the issues addressed in the lawsuits:
The bill significantly increases fines for violations by voter registration organizations. As an example, groups could face up to $250,000 a year in fines, five times the current $50,000 annual limit, for failing to submit completed registration applications to election supervisors on time. The bill reduces the time groups have to deliver applications to election supervisors from 14 days to 10 days. The bill prohibits non-citizens and people who have been convicted of certain crimes from handling voter registration applications for the groups. The bill prevents groups from withholding personal information about people who register to vote. The bill requires groups to provide “receipts” to people who sign up.
Both lawsuits allege, in part, that the bill violates First Amendment rights to political expression and would have a “chilling” effect on groups. For example, one of the plaintiffs, Equal Ground Education Fund, hopes to halt voter registration efforts during the next election cycle because of the “increased risk of exorbitant fines imposed by SB 7050,” according to the coalition’s lawsuit.
“By imposing prohibitive penalties on (third-party registration groups) for any error or omission by any of its associates in voter registration activities, SB 7050 requires (third-party registration groups) to assume potentially ruinous financial responsibility for the activities of its volunteers. and thereby seriously hinders its expressive speech and conduct and its ability to associate with a broad swath of membership,” the League of Women Voters’ lawsuit said.
During a House debate last month, Rep. Lawrence McClure, a Dover Republican who helped sponsor the measure, said the bill’s changes, at least in part, are designed to protect information submitted by voters .
“We are prioritizing this voter’s personal information,” McClure said. “It should be the most sacred part of the whole interaction.”
