Lawsuits filed after DeSantis signs Florida bill requiring voters to prove citizenship
By Meleah Lyden, Rick Mayer
April 1, 2026 at 12:42 PM EDT
A pair of legal challenges contend the changes violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiffs are asking courts to strike down the law and block its enforcement.
Shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday requiring Florida voters to prove their citizenship, two federal lawsuits were filed against it by voting rights groups claiming the measure will disenfranchise eligible voters and create unnecessary barriers.
The law (HB 991) changes how voters prove their U.S. citizenship. Starting next year, the state will verify citizenship using driver's licenses or government records like birth certificates and passports. It also eliminates student and retirement home IDs to verify voter eligibility.
This legislation is Florida's version of the federal Safeguard America Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, a proposal - currently stalled in Congress - that would restrict mail-in ballots, which Florida's measure does not do.
Florida's law does require candidates to disclose whether they have dual citizenship. It also requires candidates for federal positions to disclose whether they intend to trade stocks while in office.
ALSO READ: Elections lawyer continues to threaten lawsuit over citizenship voting bill
“This bill protects and expands integrity in our voter registration process by requiring the verification of U.S. citizenship when you're doing your voter registration,” DeSantis said at a signing gathering at the Eisenhower Recreation Center in The Villages. “Our constitution says only American citizens are allowed to vote in our elections, and so, we need to make sure that is the law.”
Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, a bill sponsor, called the changes “common sense.”
“We have real IDs that there is credibility and fidelity in, and we should be able to count on those,” Grall said during The Villages gathering.
The changes would not take effect until 2027, after the current election cycle.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2039383906743648671
Both lawsuits allege the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment by imposing an unlawful burdens on the right to vote. The plaintiffs are asking the court to strike down the law and block its enforcement
DeSantis expected legal challenges, describing such efforts as a “song and dance.”
“They go to a liberal judge. The liberal judge sides with them. Then we appeal and we win,” DeSantis said.
One lawsuit was filed by the Elias Law Group on behailf of the Florida NAACP and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
“HB 991 imposes sweeping new documentary proof of citizenship requirements that will prevent eligible Floridians from registering and voting," the suit reads.
"It requires voters to produce specific documents to prove their citizenship and subjects even long-registered voters to burdensome verification processes, all without evidence of a problem the law purports to solve. Absent relief, these requirements will disenfranchise lawful voters across the state.”
ALSO READ: Trump signs a new executive order on voting. Experts say he lacks the authority
The other challenge was filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Immigration Coalition, Florida Rising, Common Cause, Hispanic Federation and UnidosUS in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Advancement Project are providing legal counsel.
According to the League of Women Voters, thousands of Floridians do not have ready access to the required documents to prove their citizenship.
“Many eligible voters do not have these documents and cannot obtain them for a variety of reasons - including because they were born without a birth certificate in the segregated South, because their documents were destroyed in a hurricane, or because they cannot afford the hundreds of dollars it costs to replace them,” the lawsuit states.
Florida state Sen. Erin Grall, a sponsor of the voters ID bill, speaks during the signing event at The Villages on April 1, 2026. (1003x564, AR: 1.7783687943262412)
“At the same time, the law directs election officials to verify registered voters’ citizenship against government databases that were never designed for that purpose and that routinely misidentify citizens as noncitizens.”
The plaintiffs say the additional documentation will make it significantly harder for naturalized citizens, low-income voters, women who've changed their name, voters of color, students, voters with disabilities, transgender people and seniors to register and participate in elections.
ALSO READ: Florida lawmakers push voter citizenship verification bill
"Unlike some other documentary proof-of-citizenship laws, this one applies retroactively to currently registered voters, making it even likelier that eligible voters will be both wrongly prevented from registering and/or erroneously removed from the rolls," the League of Women Voters wrote in a press release.
The organizations said courts previously found that proof-of-citizenship requirements disenfranchise eligible voters. Both groups cited a similar 2016 Kansas law that blocked more than 30,000 residents from registering to vote. It was struck down in 2018 for violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Constitution.
League of Women Voters of Florida president Jessica Lowe-Minor said voters in the state already have to confirm their citizenship when they register. So, she believes this bill will cause disenfranchisement. "No eligible Floridian should be pushed out of the voter rolls simply because of red tape," she said.
Common Cause Florida executive director Amy Keith is worried that if the law stands, thousands of U.S. citizens will be removed from voter rolls — preventing them from voting in the next presidential election if they can't afford to get specific documents.
"Life is getting increasingly harder and more expensive in Florida, but with this bill, legislators are purging the very voters who are suffering most from Florida’s affordability crisis. I don't think that's a coincidence," Keith said.
Information from News Service of Florida was used in this report.
The law (HB 991) changes how voters prove their U.S. citizenship. Starting next year, the state will verify citizenship using driver's licenses or government records like birth certificates and passports. It also eliminates student and retirement home IDs to verify voter eligibility.
This legislation is Florida's version of the federal Safeguard America Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, a proposal - currently stalled in Congress - that would restrict mail-in ballots, which Florida's measure does not do.
Florida's law does require candidates to disclose whether they have dual citizenship. It also requires candidates for federal positions to disclose whether they intend to trade stocks while in office.
ALSO READ: Elections lawyer continues to threaten lawsuit over citizenship voting bill
“This bill protects and expands integrity in our voter registration process by requiring the verification of U.S. citizenship when you're doing your voter registration,” DeSantis said at a signing gathering at the Eisenhower Recreation Center in The Villages. “Our constitution says only American citizens are allowed to vote in our elections, and so, we need to make sure that is the law.”
Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, a bill sponsor, called the changes “common sense.”
“We have real IDs that there is credibility and fidelity in, and we should be able to count on those,” Grall said during The Villages gathering.
The changes would not take effect until 2027, after the current election cycle.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2039383906743648671
Both lawsuits allege the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment by imposing an unlawful burdens on the right to vote. The plaintiffs are asking the court to strike down the law and block its enforcement
DeSantis expected legal challenges, describing such efforts as a “song and dance.”
“They go to a liberal judge. The liberal judge sides with them. Then we appeal and we win,” DeSantis said.
One lawsuit was filed by the Elias Law Group on behailf of the Florida NAACP and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
“HB 991 imposes sweeping new documentary proof of citizenship requirements that will prevent eligible Floridians from registering and voting," the suit reads.
"It requires voters to produce specific documents to prove their citizenship and subjects even long-registered voters to burdensome verification processes, all without evidence of a problem the law purports to solve. Absent relief, these requirements will disenfranchise lawful voters across the state.”
ALSO READ: Trump signs a new executive order on voting. Experts say he lacks the authority
The other challenge was filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Immigration Coalition, Florida Rising, Common Cause, Hispanic Federation and UnidosUS in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Advancement Project are providing legal counsel.
According to the League of Women Voters, thousands of Floridians do not have ready access to the required documents to prove their citizenship.
“Many eligible voters do not have these documents and cannot obtain them for a variety of reasons - including because they were born without a birth certificate in the segregated South, because their documents were destroyed in a hurricane, or because they cannot afford the hundreds of dollars it costs to replace them,” the lawsuit states.
Florida state Sen. Erin Grall, a sponsor of the voters ID bill, speaks during the signing event at The Villages on April 1, 2026. (1003x564, AR: 1.7783687943262412)
“At the same time, the law directs election officials to verify registered voters’ citizenship against government databases that were never designed for that purpose and that routinely misidentify citizens as noncitizens.”
The plaintiffs say the additional documentation will make it significantly harder for naturalized citizens, low-income voters, women who've changed their name, voters of color, students, voters with disabilities, transgender people and seniors to register and participate in elections.
ALSO READ: Florida lawmakers push voter citizenship verification bill
"Unlike some other documentary proof-of-citizenship laws, this one applies retroactively to currently registered voters, making it even likelier that eligible voters will be both wrongly prevented from registering and/or erroneously removed from the rolls," the League of Women Voters wrote in a press release.
The organizations said courts previously found that proof-of-citizenship requirements disenfranchise eligible voters. Both groups cited a similar 2016 Kansas law that blocked more than 30,000 residents from registering to vote. It was struck down in 2018 for violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Constitution.
League of Women Voters of Florida president Jessica Lowe-Minor said voters in the state already have to confirm their citizenship when they register. So, she believes this bill will cause disenfranchisement. "No eligible Floridian should be pushed out of the voter rolls simply because of red tape," she said.
Common Cause Florida executive director Amy Keith is worried that if the law stands, thousands of U.S. citizens will be removed from voter rolls — preventing them from voting in the next presidential election if they can't afford to get specific documents.
"Life is getting increasingly harder and more expensive in Florida, but with this bill, legislators are purging the very voters who are suffering most from Florida’s affordability crisis. I don't think that's a coincidence," Keith said.
Information from News Service of Florida was used in this report.