© 2024 WGCU News
PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Critics Call Florida's New Voting Law SB 90 a "Voter Suppression Bill"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during SB 90 signing on Fox & Friends.
Screenshot
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during SB 90 signing on Fox & Friends.

Since the 2020 election a number of Republican-led legislatures across the U.S. have worked to pass legislation that they say is meant to prevent voter fraud. Critics call the measures voter suppression. Florida is one of 47 states that have debated more than 350 bills that curb voting rights. That’s according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice released on April 1.

Florida’s version is Senate Bill 90 which Governor Ron DeSantis has now signed into law. It makes changes to the state’s vote-by-mail system, prevents groups from collecting and delivering vote-by-mail ballots, and restricts solicitations near polling places, among other things.

Shortly after Governor DeSantis signed SB 90 a group of Florida-based civil rights organizations sued state and local election officials seeking to block the new restrictive voting measures.

We dig into what the new law says with Patti Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida, which is leading that legal challenge; and Dr. Micah Kubic, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida.