Florida Shuts Down Grassroots Voter Registration Drives

Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican supermajority in the Florida legislature, it is now almost impossible for grassroots groups to run voter registration drives in the Sunshine State. Unsurprisingly this successful effort to shut down Floridians’ right to vote disproportionately affects Latino and Black residents.

Following the 2020 election and Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature passed—and Governor Ron DeSantis signed—a series of laws that made it significantly harder for Floridians to vote. One of these imposed enormous penalties on nonprofit groups that conducted voter registration drives.

Florida election officials were directed to fine grassroots groups as much as $2,500 for every individual voter registration application submitted more than 10 days after its completion. Annual fees could climb to as much as $250,000, including $50,000 for accidentally assisting non-citizens with registration. Non-profits therefore made the calculation that voter registration drives simply weren’t worth the risk. As of June 2024, 7,000 voters had been enrolled by these groups, compared to 60,000 throughout the 2020 presidential election year.

Of course, this legislation affected the state’s Latino and Black populations far more than its white residents. One out of 10 Latino and Black voters was registered through grassroots registration drives. In comparison, only one in 50 white voters was registered by these organizations.

Florida’s successful efforts to make vote by mail more difficult, close polling stations, and shut down voter registration drives have turned it into one of the most difficult states in which to vote—all in an effort to maintain the Republican Party’s stranglehold on the levers of government.

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