Florida Passes Its Own Version Of The SAVE Act 

Despite it being a microscopic issue with very few documented instances, the Republican Party has treated voter fraud, specifically noncitizen voting, as if it’s one of the most pressing issues of our time. President Donald Trump has been steadily pressuring Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would impose more stringent voter ID requirements, to very little success. The Florida state legislature has taken matters into its own hands and passed a bill modeled on the SAVE America Act. 

According to the Hill, Florida’s HB 991 passed in the state House on Thursday evening in a 77-28 vote, shortly after being passed in the state Senate. The bill would require Florida voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or REAL ID, when registering to vote or changing their name after being married. 

As NewsOne has previously reported, the reason these citizenship requirements are so dangerous is that millions of Americans don’t immediately have access to documents proving their citizenship.   

The Florida Phoenix reports that one of the more controversial changes is the restriction on student IDs, which critics of the bill have said disenfranchises young voters who may not have a driver’s license. “When did students become the enemy?” asked Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee, ahead of the vote. “I can imagine a long line of students go to vote and they have their student IDs and they get turned away. They’re not coming back. They’re not going to fix it.”

Republicans argued that a student ID does not indicate citizenship. “We want people who are legal to vote, we want citizens to be able to vote,” said Sen. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto. “We don’t just want just someone that might have an ID for whatever reason and maybe their ID doesn’t necessarily identify that they’re a citizen of this state.”

Massullo has a point. How dare you assume that just because I had an Arizona State University student ID meant I lived in Arizona while attending college? In reality, even if someone was doing online classes for a university in another state, do you know the amount of money and effort it would take to not only register to vote in another state, but also send in a ballot? Millions of Americans are having to choose between eating and going to the doctor. 

In fact, thousands of Florida residents can no longer afford quality health insurance as a result of Congressional Republicans’ allowing subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to expire. Instead of focusing on ways to mitigate that problem, we’ve instead got Florida politicians trying to disenfranchise voters. 

While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bill, it will likely face legal challenges. According to AP, a similar bill was passed in Kansas in 2011 that required voters to prove citizenship to vote. After a group of Kansas residents sued the state over the law, it was struck down in court, with the law found to prevent 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible from voting. 

It appears increasingly unlikely that the SAVE America Act will pass the Senate, but it’s an alarming sign that red states are taking matters into their own hands. 

SEE ALSO:

President Trump Refuses To Sign Bills Until SAVE America Act Passes

SAVE America Act Is Republicans’ Next Ploy To Steal The Midterms