Florida Rising Together Releases New Details in Lawsuit Challenging Florida’s Discriminatory “Exact Match” Voter Verification Process
October 17, 2025
Washington, DC — Today, Florida Rising Together filed court documents demonstrating that nearly 80,000 Florida voter registrants are currently not eligible to vote due to the State’s “exact match” voter verification policies. Florida Rising Together is represented by Advancement Project, Community Justice Project and Associate Professor Mark Dorosin of Florida A&M University College of Law.
The disenfranchised voters are overwhelmingly people of color. Of the 79,447 applicants whose registrations have been held up due to exact match, only 9% identify as white. By comparison, more than 55% of Florida’s registered voters identify as white. Meanwhile, Black and Latino registrants are disproportionately being kept off the rolls due to the exact match protocol. More than 57% of the registrants on the exact match list identify as Black or Latino, which is a much higher percentage than their share of the Florida registered voter pool (33%).
The exact match process also has disparate geographical effects. Registrants from diverse, relatively urban Miami-Dade, Broward, Duval, and Orange Counties collectively account for over 60% of applicants who have not made it onto the rolls due to the exact match process, even those four counties account for approximately a quarter of Florida’s registered voters.
The “exact match” verification process, which uses computerized data matching to process voter registrations, has led to hundreds of thousands of voter registration applications being held up and placed in “unverified” status since 2018. The process specifically impacts applicants who register using paper applications. It generally does not impact those who register online or at a driver’s license office.
See the full details here.
“The new information we were able to obtain through this lawsuit shows that Black voters and other voters of color are the main targets of the ‘exact match’ verification process,” said Hani Mirza, director of the Power & Democracy Program at Advancement Project. “Florida’s ‘exact match’ verification requirement remains a racially discriminatory barrier that violates federal law. We will continue to fight to ensure every eligible voter can register, vote, and have their vote counted.”
“Florida’s leaders may celebrate the ‘exact match’ verification process, but there’s nothing to celebrate about a system that keeps Black and Brown voters off the rolls,” said Moné Holder, Chief Advocacy & Political Officer at Florida Rising Together. “The state’s so-called verification process punishes voters for typos instead of protecting democracy and promoting voter registration. By allowing the ‘exact match’ verification process, Florida officials continue to deny tens of thousands of Black voters and other voters of color access to our democracy. We must end this discrimination and oppression toward Florida voters at the hands of their very own elected officials.”
Voting rights advocates recommend the following three steps necessary to remedy Florida’s violations: (1) stop rejecting or delaying acceptance of voter registration applications based on a failure to meet “exact match” verification requirements; (2) place otherwise eligible applicants on the rolls in active status if their voter registration application was denied solely due to a failure to satisfy the “exact match” verification requirement; and (3) permit applicants whose registrations were not accepted to have their ballots counted absent evidence that the registrant is not eligible to vote.
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Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice. Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.
