Visitors gathered in the Santa Fe College Blount Center Aug. 1 to hear several Black-led organizations inform citizens about voting.
Equal Ground Education Fund, a Black-led voting rights organization aiming to increase civic engagement through voter education and preparedness, sponsored the event. Speakers shared information from multiple organizations, including the Alachua County NAACP, Social Justice Committee of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Gainesville Residents United and Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville.
Equal Ground Interim Executive Director Genesis Robinson began with a presentation discussing the current power dynamics within the Florida Legislature and an overview of the bills passed during the 2024 legislative session.
“There were numerous bills … that passed Florida’s legislature that will impact the lives of everyone who lives here,” he said. “The reality is, people are just busy living life and they can’t follow the legislative process closely. That’s where we try to fill that void.”
The Equal Ground Gainesville event was part of a statewide tour that started in late April, and Robinson said his team has already traveled across the state.
Signed into law in 2021, Robinson said Senate Bill 90 was among the most significant legislative changes perpetuating voter suppression.
The bill revised Florida’s election laws, stipulating that all citizens must request a vote-by-mail ballot each election cycle, and those who choose to vote by mail must provide their driver’s license or the last four digits of their social security number.
Prior to the bill, vote-by-mail ballot applications covered two general election cycles. By the end of 2022, nearly all of the existing requests were nullified by the new law, with approximately three million Floridians having voted by mail in the 2022 general election.
Robinson said the new law restricted citizens from voting, including those who may not have a driver’s license.
“There are so many people who are potentially at home thinking they’ll get a ballot, and they may not,” he said. “[Florida] didn’t provide any funding to educate voters about that change. Uniformity across the state didn’t exist with respect to how we’re alerting people about this change.”
Robinson said the law also makes it difficult for community-led organizations to help constituents register to vote by mail.
“Fraud is real,” he said. “Nobody wants to hand out that type of sensitive information. The state knows that.”
Gwendolyn Saffo, Alachua County League of Women Voters Board of Directors vice president, presented other voting information sources from her organization, such as VOTE411.
VOTE411 is a nationwide, online voting guide that allows citizens to input their address and see the candidates up for vote in their area. The League of Women Voters sends each candidate a list of questions to answer so locals can become informed of their stances.
“We’re a nonpartisan organization,” Saffo said. “We just want to make sure we have informed voting.”
Florida Rep. Yvonne Hayes-Hinson, D-Gainesville, said she has personally witnessed voter suppression tactics through the crackdown of voter registration drives.
In an effort by the Florida Legislature to curb fraud and decreased trust in elections, SB 7050 revises registration requirements, procedures, deadlines, prohibitions and fines for third-party voter registration organizations.
The fine for breaking the law is $250,000, and in the months after the bill took effect in 2023, registrations through drives fell 95% compared to four years prior, according to a report by the League of Women Voters in Florida.
For voters in Alachua County and across Florida, Hinson emphasized the importance of voting in the upcoming elections.
“It doesn’t matter how much money they have, how much prosperity they have, how much help they have,” she said. “It all depends on their vote. Voters need to understand the power that lies in their vote to enhance their own prosperity.”
Contact Sara-James Ranta at sranta@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sarajamesranta.
Sara-James Ranta is a third-year journalism major, minoring in sociology of social justice and policy. Previously, she served as a general assignment reporter for The Alligator's university desk.
