voting rights

Amy Keith started working for Common Cause Florida about a year and a half ago as Florida Program Director, leading the organization’s voting rights, redistricting, and accountability work, including its federal congressional redistricting case that’s still working its way through the system. As of December 1 she serves as the organization’s Executive Director.In that federal congressional redistricting case (Common Cause Florida v. Byrd) Common Cause Florida, Fair Districts Now, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, and individual voters from across Florida argue that the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis engaged in intentional racial discrimination in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution when they crafted the state’s current congressional map. She joins us to talk about that case, and the other issues Common Cause Florida is focusing on right now.

In a victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican legislators, a full federal appeals court Thursday declined to take up a challenge to a 2021 Florida elections law that opponents contend discriminated against Black voters.

Calling the state a “national embarrassment,” a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday accused Gov. Ron DeSantis and other elected officials of failing “to realize the promise” of a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences.

A coalition of voter rights groups has successfully petitioned to add a new Secured Ballot Intake Station in the Dunbar community in Fort Myers. The new drop box will be accessible at the Dunbar-Jupiter Hammon Public Library in Fort Myers from 9 a.m. to 6 pm. Sunday, Nov. 6 and Monday Nov.7.

People in the 18-29 age range tend to have the lowest voting rates in the nation. Southwest Florida officials, and even young people themselves, say that probably will not change in this November's election.

As the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act sits stalled in the U.S. Senate, Florida’s Senate Bill 90 has been challenged in a federal lawsuit. Each promises to enact several changes to how votes are cast and counted in the United States. This story provides explanatory context and background.

A conversation with investigative reporter and founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting Jerry Mitchell about how his work led to convictions of KKK members in the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing, the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers, the 1966 fatal firebombing of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer, and the killings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner during the Freedom Summer of 1964. Mitchell comes to FGCU for free lecture that’s open to the public on Wednesday, Feb. 16.

Earlier this month the Florida Gulf Coast University Library Archives and Special Collections’ hosted a virtual panel discussion in conjunction with their current digital exhibition titled, “Fight for the Ballot: Voting Rights in the 20th Century.”The panel discussion called, “The Right to Vote – Under Attack Again!” was moderated by WGCU’s John Davis and included legal and voting rights experts C. Ronald Ellington, Howard Simon and Jennifer Scuteri all discussing voter suppression, gerrymandering and the impact of elections.With just over a week until the Nov. 3 General Election, we present that panel discussion.

In the November 3rd general election, Florida voters will decide the fate of Amendment 1, which on the surface seems fairly innocuous. Numerous media outlets have reported the Amendment is redundant, and does nothing to change the state’s constitution. However, the proposed change could lead to significant new barriers to eligible voters in future Florida elections.

Voter turnout in the U.S. typically trails behind voter participation rates in other developed nations even as the history of efforts to expand voting rights in this country has been a long, often bloody battle. On the heels of Florida’s primary elections this week, we explore the new virtual exhibition at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Wilson G. Bradshaw Library titled, “Fight for the Ballot: Voting Rights in the 20th Century.”