Fact Sheet

How Florida Elections Would Look Different if the Freedom to Vote Act Had Been Enacted

Passage of the Freedom to Vote Act would have expanded access to voter registration and the ballot box for millions of Floridians for the 2024 election.

Part of a Series
Three polling booths are seen with a voter standing at one of them and an American flag in the background.
A voter fills out a ballot in Miami on November 3, 2020. (Getty/Joe Raedle)

The Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) would expand access to the ballot box for millions of Americans and ensure that all citizens can easily exercise their right to vote, regardless of their ZIP code. At the same time, this transformational federal voting rights legislation would strengthen election security, improve election administration and campaign finance transparency, and ban partisan gerrymandering.

The FTVA would make voting easier and more secure for 15.5 million voting-age Florida citizens, including 9.8 million currently registered voters. A new report from the Center for American Progress provides analysis and statistical extrapolations to illustrate how the 2024 and subsequent election cycles would be transformed if the FTVA’s key voting policies had been enacted in 2022, when the legislation was blocked through the use of the filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor.1

Read the full report

Analysis and projections for Florida, based on previous academic and expert research as well as original research, demonstrate the transformative impact the FTVA could have for voters in the state.

Unless otherwise cited, the author conducted original analysis and created projections primarily based on data published by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission for past federal election cycles. For a comprehensive look at the data analyzed for this fact sheet, see here.

To put some of the below findings into perspective, the 2020 Florida presidential election was decided by 372,000 voters, the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election was decided by 32,000 voters, and the 2018 Florida U.S. Senate election was decided by only 10,000 voters.2

372,000

voters decided the 2020 Florida presidential election

32,000

voters decided the 2018 Florida gubernatorial elections

10,000

voters decided the 2018 Florida U.S. Senate election

818,000

additional Florida voters would likely vote in the 2024 presidential election

Take Action: Pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

Automatic voter registration

The FTVA would ensure eligible Florida citizens can automatically register to vote through the department of motor vehicles.3 Automatic voter registration (AVR) has been shown to be critical not only for registering voters and keeping voter rolls up to date but also for closing racial gaps in voter registration rates. Given the measured impacts that AVR has had in other states:

  • Approximately 1.7 million Floridians likely would have newly registered to vote through AVR, including approximately 172,000 Hispanic Floridians and 231,000 Black Floridians.
  • Approximately 1.7 million already registered Florida voters likely would have updated their voter registration information using AVR ahead of the 2024 general election.
  • Nearly 818,000 additional Florida voters would likely cast a ballot in the 2024 general election, including approximately 83,000 Hispanic voters and 112,000 Black voters.

Same-day voter registration

The FTVA would ensure eligible Florida citizens can register to vote at the polls on Election Day and during an early voting period.4 Same-day voter registration (SDR) greatly benefits communities that tend to move more frequently and therefore need to update their voter registration information more often; Hispanic Americans and young Americans are among the demographic populations that move around the most frequently.5 Additionally, SDR helps mitigate issues with inaccurate voter roll purges that often disproportionately affect voters of color.6 The SDR policy in the FTVA would ensure that voters inaccurately removed from the voter rolls are able not only to re-register at the polls but also to cast a nonprovisional ballot.

Across the past three federal election cycles, Hispanic voters in states with SDR had an average voter turnout rate that was 6.6 percentage points higher than that of Hispanic voters in states without SDR; during the last presidential election, it was 4.5 percentage points higher. Additionally, academic experts have found that SDR increases youth voter turnout by between 3.1 percentage points and 7.3 percentage points.7 Given these findings:

  • Approximately 217,000 additional Hispanic Floridians would likely cast a ballot if voter turnout for Hispanic Floridians was at the same rate as for Hispanic voters in states with SDR for the presidential general election.
  • As many as 102,000 more young Floridians—those ages 18 to 24—would likely cast a ballot in the 2024 general election.

Re-enfranchisement

The FTVA would restore the right to vote for returning citizens who have served time for felony sentences. Black Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of white Americans, while Hispanic/Latino Americans are incarcerated at nearly two-and-a-half times the rate of white Americans.8

  • Approximately 1.4 million Floridians could have regained their right to vote and become eligible to cast a ballot for the 2024 general election, including approximately 251,000 Black Floridians and 96,000 Hispanic/Latino Floridians.9

Early in-person voting

The FTVA would ensure all Americans have access to at least two weeks of early in-person voting (EIPV), including on weekends. Florida is among 10 states that will not offer a minimum of two weeks of EIPV for the 2024 general election.

During the previous two general elections, states with at least two weeks of EIPV had a voter turnout rate that was, on average, 3 percentage points higher than states without a minimum two weeks of EIPV.

  • 337,000 more Floridians would likely turn out to cast a ballot in the 2024 general election if the state’s voter turnout increased by 3 percentage points, mirroring higher voter turnout rates in states with at least two weeks of EIPV.

Endnotes

  1. Greta Bedekovics, “Pass the Freedom to Vote Act: How Elections Would Look Different This Year and in the Future” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2024), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/pass-the-freedom-to-vote-act-how-elections-would-look-different-this-year-and-in-the-future/; Freedom to Vote Act, S. 2747, 117th Cong., 1st sess. (September 14, 2021), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2747.
  2. Ballotpedia, “Presidential election in Florida, 2020,” available at https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_in_Florida, 2020 (last accessed September 2024); Ballotpedia, “Florida gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018,” available at https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_gubernatorial_and_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election,_2018 (last accessed September 2024); Ballotpedia “Florida elections, 2018,” available at https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_elections,_2018 (last accessed September 2024).
  3. National Conference of State Legislatures, “Automatic Voter Registration,” available at https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/automatic-voter-registration (last accessed September 2024); Movement Advancement Project, “Automatic Voter Registration,” available at https://www.lgbtmap.org/democracy-maps/automatic_voter_registration (last accessed September 2024).
  4. Ballotpedia, “Same-day voter registration,” available at https://ballotpedia.org/Same-day_voter_registration (last accessed September 2024).
  5. Jacob M. Grumbach and Charlotte Hill, “Rock the Registration: Same Day Registration Increases Turnout of Young Voters,” The Journal of Politics 84 (1) (2022): 405–417, available at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/714776?journalCode=jop; Paul Taylor and others, “American Mobility: Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?” (Washington: Pew Research Center, 2008), available at https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/10/Movers-and-Stayers.pdf; Hire A Helper, “32+ Key Moving Statistics You Should Know in 2023,” available at https://www.hireahelper.com/moving-statistics/ (last accessed September 2024); U.S. Census Bureau, “Current Population Survey Data Tables, 2022,” available at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/data/tables.2022.List_1020932829.html#list-tab-List_1020932829 (last accessed September 2024).
  6. Michael Waldman, “Mass Purges are the New Voter Suppression,” Brennan Center for Justice, March 12, 2024, available at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mass-purges-are-new-voter-suppression; Megan Henry, “Ohio’s voter purge ‘disproportionately targets voters of color’, civil rights organizations say,” Ohio Capital Journal, July 25, 2024, available at https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/07/25/ohios-voter-purge-disproportionately-targets-voters-of-color-civil-rights-organizations-say/.
  7. Grumbach and Hill, “Rock the Registration: Same Day Registration Increases Turnout of Young Voters.”
  8. NAACP, “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet,” available at https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet (last accessed September 2024); Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Hernandez D. Stroud, “The Federal Government Must Incentivize States to Incarcerate Fewer People,” Brennan Center for Justice, March 14, 2023, available at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/federal-government-must-incentivize-states-incarcerate-fewer-people#:~:text=Black%20Americans%20are%20incarcerated%20in,incarceration%20rate%20of%20white%20people.
  9. Grace Segers, “Florida ballot initiative giving former felons the right to vote passes,” CBS News, November 6, 2018, available at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-ballot-initiative-giving-former-felons-the-right-to-vote-passes/; Christopher Uggen and others, “Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights” (Washington: The Sentencing Project, 2022), available at https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/locked-out-2022-estimates-of-people-denied-voting-rights/.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Greta Bedekovics

Associate Director

Sydney Bryant

Policy Analyst, Structural Reform and Governance

Alice Lillydahl

Research Associate, Strucutral Reform and Governance

Team

Democracy Policy

The Democracy Policy team is advancing an agenda to win structural reforms that strengthen the U.S. system and give everyone an equal voice in the democratic process.

Explore The Series

Black voting booths with American flags on them are seen in a row.

This series provides insight into how the Freedom to Vote Act would expand and protect the right to vote for Americans across the country.

Previous
Next
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Default Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Variable Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.