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"The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision issued today is anathema to our country’s values. Our republic is stronger when more people participate. The ability to vote should never be conditioned on economic circumstances. The 'demos' in democracy means all the people decide, not the moneyed people."

"No one should have to choose between their health and their vote, yet that is the choice that Governor DeSantis is forcing them to make," said Liza McClenaghan, state chair of the Common Cause Florida governing board. "We urge the Governor to give voters a clear range of safe and secure options to cast their vote-by-mail ballots or to cast their ballots in-person at early voting sites and precinct polling places on Election Day."  

Today, the federal appeals court held oral arguments in Jones v. DeSantis, a case determining the constitutionality of wealth-based obstacles to voting. "SB 7066 limits the number of poor people who are able to vote. It creates a pay-to-vote scheme that is anathema to our country’s values. The ability to participate in our democracy should never be conditioned on economic circumstances."

Represented by Covington & Burling LLP, Common Cause Florida today filed an amicus brief in Jones v. DeSantis, urging a federal appeals court to uphold a decision that concluded a Florida law that created wealth-based hurdles to voting is unconstitutional.

Our government is supposed to be ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ -- but in the middle of a public health emergency, our government is now making it harder for ‘the people’ to have their voices heard.

Common Cause Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida and 11 other groups today urged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to veto SB 1794, a bill that would make it harder for citizens to propose amendment to the state constitution. “Our government is supposed to be ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ and yet our Legislature is making it harder for the people to have their voices heard,” said Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert, Executive Director of Common Cause Florida.