A wide-ranging election measure teed up for action Wednesday in the Florida House of Representatives would change the kinds of ID voters can present at the polls, potentially making it more difficult for college students and seniors to vote.
The provision has gotten little attention because it’s tucked in a set of major proposed changes in Florida election law, the latest step in a yearslong effort by Republicans who control Florida state government to tighten the state’s voting laws.
Republicans argue they’re trying to improve the state’s elections, which have a reputation as well run with fast results. Democrats and voting-rights activists say the past and current moves are aimed at suppressing turnout of voters who don’t support the majority party.
One of the many provisions of House Bill 991, sponsored by state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, would remove multiple forms of identification that Florida voters have been allowed to use for years at the polls.
The issue isn’t about whether voters should have to show identification to vote. That question is controversial in many states, but Florida has long required people to show identification to vote. Most people use their driver’s licenses, with others using state-issued ID cards. For people without those forms of ID, state law has permitted multiple other forms of identification.
People could use other forms of government ID at the polls, specifically including concealed weapons permits, but the legislation would explicitly rule out student identification, even if issued by a state college or university. It’s the only form of government-issued ID that would be carved out and no longer permitted for voter identification.
Also no longer accepted under the bill: debit or credit cards and retirement center, neighborhood association or public assistance identification.
The law would still allow identification “issued by any branch, department, agency or entity of the federal government, the state, a county or a municipality” specifically including passports, military or Veterans Administration IDs, and concealed weapons permits. Passport cards would also be accepted.
House Bill 991 has many other provisions, including a controversial component that requires verification of voters’ citizenship and changing the system of election recounts in close elections and instituting audits of all elections.
Just what will become law is unclear. Senate Bill 1334, which also contains the citizenship verification, doesn’t include the rollback in types of ID or recount-audit change. And the House and Senate versions differ on whether election law changes should take place this summer — weeks before the August primaries — or after the November elections.
The citizenship issue has gotten the lion’s share of attention, but some voting rights activists have raised concerns about the voter ID provisions.
“These (changes) directly harm young voters, elderly voters and low-income voters,” said Abdelilah Skhir, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
“The end result is ultimately going to be harder for those communities. It’s going to be harder to vote, point blank. Whether you’re a student, whether you’re an elderly voter, whether you’re low income,” Skhir said. Removing forms of accepted ID “makes it harder for people to vote.”
Susan MacManus, a professor emerita of political science at the University of South Florida whose specialties include voter behavior, said the changes may not resonate for many people because they’ll only think of the ID they use. The majority who use driver’s licenses may not see it as an issue.
A driver’s license isn’t the same imperative for younger people today that it was a generation or two ago. Progressive, the insurance company, reports that Federal Highway Administration data show that 80% of 18-year-olds in the U.S. had driver’s licenses in the early 1980s. In 2022, it was 59%.
“The proponents of this bill think they’re on solid ground because most people in the public like the idea of voter ID,” said Brad Ashwell, Florida director of the advocacy organization All Voting Is Local. He said there’s no apparent need for the change given that “Florida has very strong voter ID laws.”
State Rep. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, pressed Persons-Mulicka during a committee hearing on the bill to provide a rationale for removing student ID.
Persons-Mulicka responded by explaining what her bill would do, but not why.
“Now we’re talking about voter ID. What type of photo identification do you need to have with you when you go and vote at the polls on Election Day?” Persons-Mulicka said, adding that it is “consistent with what’s being proposed on the federal level” by Republicans seeking to impose voter ID requirements on states that don’t already have it.
Persons-Mulicka said she “took a hard look” at educational institutions and decided to exclude them.
Eskamani asked if there have been any reported issues with use of student IDs in Florida elections in the past 10 years. Persons-Mulicka said she didn’t “have any data in front of me with specific cases.”
Eskamani said it made no sense to allow use of a concealed weapons permit as valid ID for voting, but not a student ID issued by a public university.
Laura Muñoz, with the Florida Student Power Network, said via text that the bill “is a serious and worrisome threat to student and youth voting in Florida.”
Muñoz has done civic engagement with young voters in the last four election cycles, and she said many students rely on their student IDs for voting. “Ending student ID and adding more red tape sends a clear message about who lawmakers think should and should NOT have a voice.”
The intent behind eliminating student ID is clear, state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, said during a hearing on the bill. “Young people, they don’t want y’all to vote,” she said.
“Also seniors, elders, who have worked so hard and so long here in the state of Florida, it seems as though they don’t want you to vote as well, especially if you lack some documentation because they don’t want you to be able to use your retirement community’s IDs anymore,” Nixon said. “You’re literally disenfranchising seniors.”
Persons-Mulicka said people like Nixon’s grandmother “will have to obtain an acceptable identification card.”
She said the intention of “all these election integrity measures is that we proactively prevent any type of fraud or the ability to cheat in our elections, and we’re just looking at common sense government-issued ID cards.”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.