Florida and Mississippi have now passed new citizenship verification laws, inspiring two lawsuits in the Sunshine State already. The measures were signed into law by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. Both new rules are designed to preserve election integrity in similar fashion to the SAVE Act, which is currently stalled in Congress.
The measure passed in Mississippi will take effect on July 1, 2026, with Florida’s law following on January 1, 2027. Both laws require voters to provide documents proving their citizenship if local election officials should challenge their eligibility after cross-referencing databases for voter registration applications.. The list of acceptable documents includes birth certificates, passports, or naturalization certificates.
If a person fails to provide the required proof of citizenship after they have been flagged, both states will require them to be removed from voter registration rolls. DeSantis praised the Florida SAVE Act for improving security and transparency within the state’s election system. He noted that his top priority since taking office as governor has been preserving the integrity of elections.
“Safeguarding the electoral process to improve oversight and prevent unlawful influence has been a top priority for my administration since my first days in office,” he went on to write in a social media post. “This legislation strengthens the security, transparency, and reliability of Florida’s election system.” Lawsuits challenging the new rules have already been filed, according to Fox News.
One lawsuit was filed by a civil rights organization arguing that some voters may not have the required documents and could face a number of difficulties in trying to obtain them. “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 filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida said.
The new law prohibits the use of student IDs and retirement community identifications at polling stations. Starting in July 2027, a new driver’s license must detail a person’s citizenship status. However, the SHIELD Act in Mississippi does not share that particular mandate. But it does require local officials who register individuals to vote to run extra citizenship checks if applicants fail to provide a valid driver’s license number on their voter application.
Officials in Mississippi are now also required to run a yearly statewide check against a federal database before a federal election to flag potential noncitizens in case they try to cast a ballot. “While states like California and New York flood their voter rolls with illegal aliens, Mississippi will do the opposite and defend Americans’ right to determine the outcome of elections,” Reeves posted on social media.
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“We will continue to do everything in our power to make it infinitely harder – with a goal to make it impossible – to cheat in our elections!” he added. The Southern Poverty Law Center is claiming the measure would disenfranchise Mississippi voters who might lack the necessary paperwork, especially women who have had their name changed due to marriage.
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