Editorial: They call it cleaning up the elections. It's just flat-out cheating.

It's all about the fairness. The Florida legislature and governor change the election rules to prevent cheating, they tell us. If a good number of people can't vote as a result, mostly Democratic-leaning Blacks, Hispanics, seniors or whatnot, that's just a coincidence.

A federal judge in Tallahassee doesn't see it that way, though. On May 15, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled that a new Florida provision that bans non-citizens from participating in voter registration drives is unconstitutional. The ruling is a welcome strike at repeated efforts by GOP partisans to game the system.

The provision, SB 7050, was approved by Florida's legislature and signed into law in 2023 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Its sponsors framed it as a way to keep third-party voter registration efforts honest. But there's no data that demonstrates any level of registration fraud to warrant the burdens this measure imposes, let alone the penalties that could decimate the finances of groups that seek to build voter turnout and promote democracy.

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The ruling, granting a permanent injunction against enforcing the citizenship requirement, came in Hispanic Federation et al v Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd et al, one of three similar cases that were combined, were tried in April and which await overall decisions. Judge Walker found the citizenship requirement violated the First and Fourteen Amendment protections related to free speech and association and voting rights.

The second case is led by the League of Women Voters of Florida. It opposes provisions that require third-party voter registration groups like them to provide receipts to applicants that provide the personal identification of the registration worker; reduce the days the organization has to turn in the applications; prevent the organizations from keeping registrants' information to be able to remind them to vote; and require the organizations to re-register every general election cycle. Falling afoul of the personal information requirement would constitute constitute a 3rd degree felony; turning in applications late would carry fines as high as $250,000.

The third case, by the Florida State Conference of Branches and Youth Units of the NAACP et al, is similar to the League of Women Voters suit.

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It's the same old, same old, for the governor and like-minded lawmakers: Insist they must clean up a system that needs no cleaning, while coincidentally reducing the number of voters statistically likely to oppose their party at the polls.

Other examples: remapping northern Florida congressional districts to dilute the Black vote, reducing the number of minority districts from four to two, bending the paper-thin balance of power in Washington in Republicans' favor; and erecting barriers to voting by ex-convicts, despite a public referendum that required restoring their rights.

The insidious bonus in the redistricting case is that even if these actions are to be found unconstitutional, they stay in place until the courts determine so, courts loaded with DeSantis judicial appointees. The last time the Florida GOP tried its redistricting shenanigans, in 2010, it took a number of election cycles before the courts shut them down, despite the crystal clear language of our fair elections law –– with no way to undo actions taken by improperly installed victors in the meantime.

"All facts point clearly to the conclusion that voter fraud is very rare," Brent Ferguson, senior legal council for voting rights, for the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C. noted Tuesday. The CLC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit that advocates for voting rights, fair redistricting and ethics laws, represents the League of Women Voters of Florida in its case. "And while its important to protect against it, these laws are just a smoke screen," Ferguson added. "They're an effort to make it harder to vote, especially for certain people."

Recent history has shown that even successful court challenges don't reverse the damage and don't stop Florida Republican leaders from trying again. The only cure would be cultural change within the party rank and file that supports winning political competitions through persuasion rather than perversion. We're not holding our breath.

We urge the Hispanic Federation, League of Women Voters, NAACP and others to keep fighting the good fight. We urge the good citizens of Florida to support them.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida culture of elections cheating requires steadfast opposition