MIAMI — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) challenging H.B. 991, recently passed legislation that requires voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship or risk losing their right to register to vote, remain registered and cast a ballot.
Set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027, the anti-voter Florida SAVE Act requires the state to cross-check voter applications and existing registration against government databases and remove voters who don’t respond to a mailed notice within 30 days. H.B. 991 violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by requiring additional proof of citizenship beyond that required by federal law, blocking voters from being registered, applying list-maintenance rules unevenly across countries and purging voters within 90 days of a federal election, all in direct conflict with federal law. H.B. 991 also violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of state deprivations of protected rights without due process of law.
“Florida lawmakers are reviving a bill that couldn’t survive Congress and dressing it up as state law,” said Matletha Bennette, senior staff attorney, SPLC. “This purposely manufactures a crisis for people who have done nothing wrong, and it does so on the backs of naturalized citizens, Black families and working Floridians. The right to vote must be defended against every ‘show me your papers’ bill.”
Government databases and records are frequently incomplete, particularly for Black and Latino voters who are less likely to have ready access to a birth certificate or passport. For Black families born in the Jim Crow-era South — many of whom were denied access to hospitals and formal birth records altogether — H.B. 991 demands paperwork the state itself may have refused to issue.
“H.B. 991, which is Florida’s version of the SAVE Act, puts unnecessary barriers between eligible voters and the ballot. It creates a system where voters can be denied registration or removed from the rolls because of paperwork and illegal id requirements, database errors, or a missed notice — while giving them little meaningful opportunity to correct those mistakes,” said April England-Albright, legal director, BVMF. “We know the history of voter suppression, and we know that when access to the ballot is restricted, Black voters are often among those most impacted. We are challenging this law because every eligible voter deserves a fair and accessible opportunity to register, remain registered and cast their ballot without having to navigate discriminatory and unnecessary hurdles.”
“Naturalized citizenship is not provisional. Florida cannot treat it as if it is,” said Juan Proaño, CEO, LULAC. “LULAC has fought for generations against this kind of unequal treatment at the ballot box, and we will fight this bill for the same reason: Every eligible citizen should be able to vote without being singled out for additional hurdles.”
“This is a political ploy to determine who wins our elections by picking who votes. This scheme targets Black and Brown communities by erecting barriers to voting for hundreds of thousands of eligible voters, including naturalized citizens and other Floridians who don’t have a passport,” said Tianna Mays, legal director, DDF. “We will not let this assault on our democracy stand.”
A copy of the complaint can be found here.