Voting

Nearly two years after Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials drew widespread attention by announcing voter-fraud charges against convicted felons, two South Florida appeals courts Wednesday overturned rulings that dismissed charges against a pair of defendants.Divided panels of the 3rd District Court of Appeal and the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld the statewide prosecutor’s authority to pursue the 2022 cases against Ronald Miller and Terry Hubbard and sent the cases back to circuit court.

The deadline to register to vote or update your party affiliation for the 2024 Primary Election is July 22.Florida is a Closed Primary State. This means that only voters who are registered members of a political party may vote for their respective party’s candidate in a Primary Election.

Florida supervisors of elections are pushing back on a rule proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to update standards for determining voters’ intent on ballots, saying the proposal includes “inconsistencies” that could lead to problems for county canvassing boards.The proposal lays out what canvassing boards must consider when trying to figure out what voters were trying to choose when they have not filled in circles next to candidates’ names or issues on the ballot. Voters frequently use checkmarks, lines, stars, other marks — or sometimes words — to indicate their choices.

Equal Ground is a Black-led community organization that monitors the Florida legislature and advocates for the Black community.

A Senate Republican has filed a bill that could lead to potentially far-reaching changes in voting by mail. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican who is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, filed the bill (SB 1752) for consideration during the legislative session that will start Tuesday.

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.

The Lee County Supervisor of Elections office is now using BallotTrax to keep voters updated on the status of their vote-by-mail ballots.

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.