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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature has approved a far-reaching elections bill that would tighten citizenship verification for voter registration, remove some forms of photo ID now accepted at the polls, and create new hurdles for candidates trying to qualify for office. After the Senate rewrote House Bill 991 with language drawn from Sen. Erin Grall’s proposal, the Senate passed the measure 27-12 and the House agreed to the changes 77-28, sending the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

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Republican sponsors have framed the bill as Florida’s answer to the federal SAVE Act, arguing it strengthens election integrity in a state that already promotes itself as a national model for election administration. But Democrats and voting-rights advocates warn the measure could make it harder for students, seniors and other lawful voters to cast a ballot that counts, especially if they do not have easy access to the documents the state now wants tied more closely to voter registration and in-person voting.

At the center of the bill is a new citizenship verification system tied to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Under the measure, Florida’s online voter registration system would compare an applicant’s information against DHSMV records. If citizenship can be verified there, that status would be recorded in the statewide voter registration system. If not, the application would be routed to the county supervisor of elections for further review using other government records. The bill also requires applicants to acknowledge that falsely affirming U.S. citizenship is a crime.

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The legislation also spells out what counts as acceptable proof of citizenship. The list includes a current U.S. passport, a birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, certain Florida licenses or ID cards that indicate citizenship, naturalization or citizenship records issued by the federal government, qualifying government-issued photo identification showing citizenship, and even a federal court order granting citizenship. If a voter’s legal name is different from the name on those citizenship documents, the voter would also have to provide proof of the name change.

One of the most politically charged changes involves what voters can use as photo identification at the polls. In the engrossed bill text, student identification cards and retirement center identification cards are struck from the list of acceptable IDs. Supporters say that change closes a security gap. Critics say it targets groups that are already less likely to have a Florida driver license handy, particularly college students and seniors.

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The bill does not stop there. It also changes candidate qualification rules by requiring candidates running with a political party to have been registered with that party for at least 365 consecutive days before qualifying begins. Candidates running with no party affiliation would likewise have to show they had not been registered with a political party for the same period. The proposal also creates a court process for candidates or political parties to challenge whether another candidate is legally qualified to run.

For voters, one of the most visible long-term changes would show up in their wallets. The bill creates a new section of law requiring Florida driver licenses and identification cards issued to qualified applicants who are U.S. citizens, as reflected in the state system, to include a citizenship designation by July 1, 2027. The state would have to issue a renewal or replacement card at no charge when someone timely updates their legal status after becoming a U.S. citizen.

Although most of the public debate has focused on proof of citizenship and poll-site identification, HB 991 is broader than that. The 83-page measure also creates a five-year statute of limitations for felony election code violations, expands restrictions and penalties involving foreign-national money in Florida elections, and broadens the definition of racketeering activity to include certain Election Code violations. A House staff analysis also warned the bill would likely have a negative fiscal impact on state and local governments.

Timing matters here. Despite the political urgency around the bill, the broad effective date in the engrossed version is Jan. 1, 2027, meaning the headline-grabbing citizenship and ID changes would come after the 2026 elections. Some sections, however, would take effect earlier. Candidate qualification changes take effect upon becoming law, and other provisions, including parts involving foreign-national activity, election fraud timing and state reporting requirements, take effect July 1, 2026.

What happens next is up to DeSantis. If he signs the bill, Florida will again move further down the road of stricter election law, with new documentation demands for voters, narrower ID options at the polls and more aggressive rules governing who can qualify for office. For supporters, that is a continuation of Florida’s election security agenda. For opponents, it is another step toward making lawful voting more burdensome for people who already face barriers to participation. Either way, HB 991 is poised to become one of the most consequential election bills of the 2026 session.

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