The Link Between Florida Driver License/Identification Card and Voting
As I write this, the Election Integrity bill (HB 991/SB 1334) has just been passed by both the Florida House and the Senate. It will become law unless the Governor were to veto the bill. In the meantime, let’s look at the current and potential relationship between your Florida Driver License/Identification Card (DL/ID) and voting.
Your Florida DL/ID is a REAL ID!
“The REAL ID Act became effective nationwide on May 11, 2008. Florida began issuing REAL ID compliant credentials after January 1, 2010. The new credentials have a star in the upper right corner of the card . . . Florida is a REAL ID compliant state and all Florida licenses should be accepted nationwide.” As of May 2025, over 99% of Florida DLs/IDs were REAL ID compliant! Let me repeat – only REAL IDs are issued in Florida. There are no other types of DL/ID cards.
Obtaining Your REAL ID
What you likely don’t remember is what you had to do to obtain your REAL ID. If you were a U.S. citizen, you had to bring a primary form of identification – e.g., birth certificate, passport, etc. – the same items that will be required if HB 991/SB 1334 becomes law. If you were a person who had changed their last name from the one on your birth certificate, then you had to bring documentation of that name change – e.g., a marriage certificate. Again, the same documents as required by these bills. If you were not a U.S. citizen, you had to bring other primary form of identification, depending on whether you were an immigrant, non-immigrant, or Canadian. Everyone, whether a U.S. citizen or not, also had to bring: proof of social security and proof of residential address; the latter required two different documents to prove. Now, is it coming back as to what a hassle it was the first time you did this, unless, of course, you had a U.S. passport. With a U.S. passport, you could do a happy dance, as you didn’t have to produce those hard-to-find documents, such as birth and marriage certificates. You had already done that in order to obtain your passport!
FLHSMV has your legal status on file! Therefore, if you possess a Florida DL/ID, Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) already has in their (hopefully secure) database your legal status. They already know if you are a U.S. citizen or not. Theoretically, that means the Supervisors of Elections (SOE) can easily “ping” the FLHSMV database to determine if you are, in fact, a U.S. citizen and eligible to register to vote and then vote, as would be required under HB 991/SB 1334. Easy peasy!
Monica Elliott, LWVFL Voter Services Chair |