voting rights

A federal district judge heard arguments Monday over a Florida law that voting rights advocates say could significantly reduce the ability of citizens to amend the state constitution. Some parts of that law go into effect Tuesday.

While many states have been making it easier for those people to vote after serving prison time, Florida and some other states have made it harder.

Advocates are finding it difficult to adapt as they try to register and educate potential voters with just months to go before this year's presidential election.

State lawmakers across the U.S. concerned about the integrity of elections ahead of the 2024 presidential vote are proposing and enacting an unprecedented number of laws to restrict — and, in some cases, expand — voting rights and ballot access.

In part of a series of legal battles about Florida election-law changes, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court on Thursday heard arguments in a challenge to a 2023 law that imposed restrictions on groups that collect voter-registration applications.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican who is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, filed bill SB 1752 which, in part, would place restrictions on who may cast ballots by mail.

The case, which is expected to go to the Florida Supreme Court, centers on an overhaul of North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson. Voting-rights groups and other plaintiffs argue that the overhaul violated part of the constitutional amendment, known as the Fair Districts Amendment, that barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

Florida-based Equal Ground leaders discussed federal funding for HBCU’s, broadband internet access and impact of 'unsafe' state laws on millions of Black residents with senior White House officials.

Voting-rights groups have asked an appeals court to uphold a ruling that a congressional redistricting plan backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution.

The federal lawsuit says state leaders have failed to carry out a constitutional amendment designed to restore voting rights to felons who complete their sentences.

A federal judge has refused to block two parts of a new Florida elections law that placed restrictions on voter-registration groups, while the state appealed an earlier ruling that said other changes in the law likely are unconstitutional.

The lawsuit was filed in April by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the NAACP against Secretary of State Cord Byrd.