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 vetoes 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 Driver License/Identification Card 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's DL/ID 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.
You might remember 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 FLHSMVdatabase to determine if you are, in fact, a U.S. citizen and eligible to register to vote and thenvote, as would be required under HB 991/SB 1334. Easy peasy!
U.S. citizens unable to vote?
The problem, of course, will be for those U.S. citizens who do not possess a Florida DL/ID. Currently, you can register to vote with just a social security number. It may take longer for the SOE to process that application, but they are able to do it.
If HB 991/SB 1334 becomes law, the SOE will have to verify the citizenship status of every new voter registration applicant before the application is processed by “pinging” the FLHSMV database. Marking the “yes” box to the question “Are you a citizen of the United States of America?” will no longer be adequate, even though you also sign an oath “that all information provided in this application is true” at the end of the form!
For those currently registered to vote, the state (i.e., our overworked SOEs) must verify your citizenship status. How? By using official government databases, with the FLHSMV being the obvious first choice. If the SOE can’t find a database that confirms you are a U.S. citizen, you will have to provide those primary forms of identification to prove citizenship, the same forms that have to be given to FLHSMV to obtain Florida DL/ID.
This means that the 90-year young, twice married woman who no longer drives and no longer has a Florida DL/ID, but who has been voting her entire adult life, may NOT be allowed to vote without providing the primary forms of identification if they cannot determine by searching the databases if she is a citizen or not. Not so easy peasy!
And then they changed the DL/ID Numbers...
To increase security, the FLHSMV began issuing NEW driver license or identification numbers in August 2024. This is not a problem except that your new number doesn’t match your DL/ID number in the voter registration database. Voters began having problems accessing their voter registration file online or requesting a vote-by-mail ballot online.
As more people obtained the new, more secure DL/ID, and more voters complained about the glitch with their voter registration file, the people working at the DL/ID service centers have begun to ask people at the beginning of the RENEWAL process if they want to UPDATE their voter registration file.
Some people think they are being asked to re-register to vote when they update their voter registration. It seems like it because you essentially have to complete the entire voter registration form when you change your name, address, party affiliation or DL/ID number.
Another NEW DL/ID Card
If HB 991/SB 1334 becomes law, by July 1, 2027, the state will begin replacing our current DL/ID cards with NEW ones which will indicate legal citizenship status directly on the card.
One More Thing About Identification
The bill which passed both the House and Senate includes a provision which would reduce the number of allowable IDs you could present if you vote in person. You could no longer present a debit or credit card, student identification, retirement center identification, neighborhood association identification, or public assistance identification. However, you could still use a Florida DL/ID.
Confused? Help the young voters!
Don’t worry, be happy! We can wring our hands, bite our nails and complain bitterly, but that won't accomplish anything. Instead, encourage every voter to obtain a Florida DL or ID card. This is especially important for young voters, as only about 56% of young people obtain a driver license anymore.Their perfectly good logic is: if you don’t drive, you don’t need a driver license. BUT, they do need a Florida ID in order to easily register to vote and then to actually vote! If you know a young person, help them obtain a DL or ID - be it by providing them funds or helping them obtain the documents. Like voting, just do it!
For others, such as the disabled and elderly who may not have a Florida DL/ID, it will likely be a more complicated process. If you know a person who may not have a Florida DL/ID, ask them. Don’t be shy – voting is important to them, and we need to find out if they have a DL/ID. If they do not, determine if you can help them.
Voter Registration
Currently, to register to vote online, you have to provide a Florida DL/ID and the last four digits of your social security number. This remains exactly the same with passage of HB 991/SB 1334.To register to vote currently with the paper voter registration application or to update your voter registration information, you only have to provide Florida DL/ID or last four digits of your social security number. Under the new law, applicants will need to provide both. This is the information we need to convey to voters using the paper application as they register to vote for the first time or if they are updating voter information, such as their name, address, party affiliation or signature.
Stay tuned as we continue to determine exactly how HB 991/SB 1334 are implemented.