As Florida tightens voting rights restrictions, we’re f ighting back
It’s one step forward and two steps back for voting rights in Florida. Following months of legal proceedings, on Friday a federal court of appeals allowed Senate
Bill 90 — a law that eliminated certain drop boxes and criminalized nonpartisan assistance to voters waiting in long lines —to go into effect. This is simply the latest in a series of changes meant to silence Black and
Brown Floridians.
This new decision pauses a federal judge’s prior ruling in precisely the opposite direction. Just weeks ago, in a case we brought with Poder Latinx and UnidosUS, a judge ruled that large swaths of SB 90 were unconstitutional and would result in disproportionate disenfranchisement among Black and Latino voters. Sadly, the new ruling puts Florida back on this road to disenfranchisement. The closer we move toward the August primary, the harder this state tries to keep people of color away from the polls.
Because some leaders in
Florida have put politics above what’s best for the state, we must continue to fight against their antivoter antics. While they rely on political gamesmanship, we’re leaning into the power of Florida’s people. Having already collectively registered hundreds of thousands of Floridians to vote, we’re now more motivated than ever to get as many people as possible on the rolls.
While this latest ruling on SB 90 is disappointing, we are not defeated. Our lawsuit resulted in the repeal of one of the law’s most damaging provisions: a requirement that third-party voter registration organizations issue fear-mongering disclaimers regarding their legitimacy. But given Florida’s history, we still face an uphill battle in making sure everyone who’s eligible can vote.
Intentional disenfranchisement has manifested in a major registration gap between white Floridians and people of color in our state. In 2011, Florida attempted to eliminate “Souls to the Polls” voting on the Sunday before
Election Day, precisely because Black voters used it disproportionately.
DISCRIMINATORY REDISTRICTING
Although Spanish is the primary language in the state’s largest county, the Florida Constitution maintains that English is the state’s official language. And we’re just weeks removed from Gov. Ron DeSantis signing his own discriminatory redistricting map — one that fails to adhere to the 2010 Fair Districts Constitutional amendments and builds on a long history of gerrymandering in this country.
Rather than learning from the past and pursuing a more inclusive democracy, Florida continues to uphold the status quo and further divide our communities in the process.
Every facet of life in Florida — from affordable housing to health care to unemployment — is in the hands of our representatives in Tallahassee.
That’s why our organizations work so hard to ensure Floridians of all backgrounds can vote. Some of the people we’ve registered are new to this country, while others have been here for generations. They are Floridians who hold multiple jobs to provide for children in public schools and parents in retirement homes. They are LGBTQ voters who live in fear of their future in this state. They are women facing threats to their constitutional right to privacy. We fight to register all who are eligible to vote and on behalf of those who are not.
This is bigger than Florida. It’s part of the fight against a nationwide assault on democracy, and we’ll need all hands on deck. For some, that means volunteering with a local organization that focuses on voting rights. For others, it means ensuring neighbors know where, when and how to vote. For all, it means voting for pro-democracy candidates like our lives depend on it.
The fight to defend the right to vote in Florida is far from over. The appellate court’s latest ruling on SB 90, the governor’s recent enactment of an “elections police force” and a new blatantly biased congressional map are signs that anti-voter entities won’t let up. And because we know that our democracy works best when all eligible Floridians can vote, neither will we.