ORLANDO, FLA. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law requiring election officials to verify the citizenship of voters using documentary proof, with the citizenship verification provision set to take effect on January 1. Civil rights organizations subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court in South Florida challenging the measure.

The law establishes a system in which voter registration applications are cross-referenced with motor vehicle records to identify potential questions about a voter's eligibility. Voters who are flagged through that cross-referencing process must then provide a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization certificate as proof of United States citizenship in order to resolve the challenge to their eligibility.

Beyond the citizenship verification provisions, the law also restricts the types of identification that voters may present at polling places. Under the new statute, credit cards, student IDs, and retirement community identifications can no longer be used as acceptable forms of voter identification when casting a ballot in Florida.

A separate provision of the law requires that the citizenship status of a driver be reflected on Florida driver's licenses starting in July 2027. That mandate would create a record of citizenship within the state's motor vehicle database, which also serves as one of the reference points in the voter eligibility cross-referencing process outlined in the law.

The civil rights organizations that brought the federal lawsuit said the law will make it harder for Floridians to vote. The legal challenge, filed in the Southern District of Florida, targets the citizenship verification framework and the additional documentation requirements imposed by the statute.

Florida is one of four Republican-led states — along with Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah — that have enacted laws this year to strengthen proof-of-citizenship requirements for voters.