Voter registration verification lawsuit filed in Florida

A nonprofit advocacy group on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Florida’s process of verifying voter-registration applications, alleging it violates federal laws.

The lawsuit, filed in the federal Middle District of Florida, focuses on the process for verifying voter-registration applicants’ eligibility. Prospective voters are deemed eligible by election officials if certain identifying information entered into the state’s voter-registration system lines up with data maintained by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or the federal Social Security Administration.

Applicants whose information does not produce an “exact match” are not allowed to vote “unless they overcome burdensome bureaucratic hurdles,” the lawsuit said. The process “not only places the burden of verification on Black voters, it further disenfranchises Black eligible voters,” lawyers representing Florida Rising Together, the plaintiff, wrote in the lawsuit.

The group is a nonprofit “dedicated to advancing economic and racial justice across Florida by building power in historically marginalized communities,” according to the lawsuit.


https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/09/18/voter-registration-verification-lawsuit-filed-in-florida/