No. CS/CS/HB 991
Filed under Elections.
Elections; Revising definitions; revising the information the uniform statewide voter registration application is designed to elicit from an applicant to include a certain acknowledgment; requiring that the online voter registration system transmit specified information to the supervisor of elections under specified circumstances; requiring that the applicant's legal status as a United States citizen be recorded in the statewide voter registration system; requiring that if the records of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles indicate that an applicant is not a United States citizen or has not provided acceptable evidence of citizenship, the online voter registration system must notify the supervisor of the applicant's legal status and transmit the application to the supervisor; requiring that the online voter registration system populate an applicant's information and direct the applicant to perform specified actions under specified conditions; requiring supervisors to verify a voter's legal status as a United States citizen using specified sources and initiate a certain notice if applicable; requiring that the voter's legal status as United States citizen and the type of document accepted as evidence of United States citizenship be recorded in the statewide voter registration system, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCandidates face new limits on qualifying for the ballot. Anyone who legally changed their name in the year before qualifying is barred, except for marriage, divorce, or adoption, and any candidate or rival party can now sue in circuit court to strike an unqualified rival.
Voter registration now runs through a citizenship check. The online system and county supervisors must verify an applicant's citizenship against state and federal records, record the result, and flag anyone who can't be confirmed for further review or a provisional ballot.
The list of ID accepted at the polls and for vote-by-mail changes. Debit and credit cards, student IDs, retirement-center IDs, neighborhood-association IDs, and public-assistance IDs no longer qualify; a passport card and service-member ID are added instead.
A few smaller changes round out the bill. Parties, committees, and candidates are now explicitly barred from knowingly accepting a foreign national's campaign contribution, and Florida driver licenses and ID cards must show citizenship status starting in 2027.
AIA candidate who legally changed their name in the 365 days before qualifying is barred from the ballot, unless the change came from a marriage, divorce, or adoption proceeding, enforced through the same kind of court challenge available to rivals and parties.
AICreates a new circuit-court action letting a candidate, political party, or affiliated committee challenge whether a rival meets all statutory and constitutional requirements for the office sought, with an expedited hearing and appeal, and removal from the ballot if the challenge succeeds.
AIThe online registration system and county supervisors must verify an applicant's U.S. citizenship using DHSMV and other government records, record the result and the document type used, and notify supervisors when status can't be confirmed so the application can be reviewed instead of silently rejected.
AIRemoves debit and credit cards, student IDs, retirement-center IDs, neighborhood-association IDs, and public-assistance IDs from the list of identification accepted at the polls and for vote-by-mail ID checks, while adding a U.S. passport card and a uniformed-services or Merchant Marine ID.
AIPreviously only foreign nationals were barred from giving. Now parties, political committees, electioneering communication organizations, and candidates may not knowingly and willfully accept or solicit a contribution from a foreign national either.
AIBy July 1, 2027, Florida driver licenses and ID cards issued to citizens must display legal citizenship status, and the state must issue a free replacement card if someone updates their status after becoming a citizen.
AICreates a specific statute of limitations for the Florida Election Code: a felony violation must be charged within five years of the date it was committed.
AIAny candidate qualifying for office must sign an oath stating whether they hold citizenship in another country in addition to the United States, and if so, name that country.