Fourth Lawsuit Filed Against Florida Voter Suppression Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A fourth lawsuit was filed today challenging Florida’s omnibus voter suppression bill, Senate Bill 90. The complaint, brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Fair Elections Center on behalf of the Harriett Tubman Freedom Fighters and HeadCount, challenges the bill’s restrictions on advocacy efforts of third-party voter registration organizations (3PVROs).
Among other severe voter suppression provisions, S.B. 90 seeks to intentionally mislead voters by requiring 3PVROs to inform voters that they may not successfully deliver voters’ registration forms on time — an unlikely outcome given these organizations’ dedication and past success with registering eligible voters — and tell them the preferred method of registration in Florida is online. The plaintiffs argue that these restrictions limit voter outreach, education and registration activities and force them to provide a misleading “warning” to voters in violation of the First and 14th Amendments. The complaint states that, despite the state’s many attempts to restrict their activity, 3PRVOs successfully registered many Florida voters before the 2020 general election without any widespread problems.