TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In the wake of the Florida House’s vote today to pass House Bill 991, League of Women Voters of Florida President Jessica Lowe-Minor issued the following statement:
“The League of Women Voters of Florida believes that voting should be convenient and accessible for all eligible citizens. Floridians deserve an elections process that is fair, secure, transparent, and allows everyone to have confidence in the validity of the results.
“House Bill 991 will make it harder for eligible Americans to vote. By tying the right to vote to possession of costly documents that many citizens don’t have easy access to, it undermines Floridians’ freedom and moves us away from the concept of free and fair democracy.
“This bill assumes voters have ready access to original and/or certified citizenship documents, however, a recent study found that 9% of American citizens do not have immediate access to the types of documentation this bill asks for. That translates to more than 1 million Floridians who could get caught in this bureaucratic web to prove their citizenship to vote.
“Despite the Florida House’s vote today, we hope the Florida Senate will take the concerns that Floridians across the state have raised over this bill into serious consideration, and will choose not to move the bill forward.”
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CONTACT
Joey Arellano