A Florida law enacted last July has drastically reduced paper-and-pen voter registration on the state’s college campuses, according to students and voter registration organizations. The number of groups registering voters on campuses has plummeted, with some shifting their efforts to online registration. However, voting rights advocates worry that this method may be less effective.

“Most college clubs have just completely stopped doing voter registration,” said Alexis Hobbs, a student at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg and president of the campus’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter. “It’s extremely sad because there are smaller communities on campus that could have been a very productive part of registration efforts. But now, they’re just too afraid to even talk about how to get registered.”

Senate Bill 7050, backed by Republicans, has increased restrictions and potential penalties for third-party voter registration organizations (3PVROs), which include any entity other than state or local elections boards that engage in voter registration activities.

Under the new law, these organizations must re-register as a 3PVRO each election cycle and provide receipts to anyone they register to vote. The window for turning in registration applications has been shortened from 14 days to 10, and the maximum penalty for failing to turn these applications in on time has been increased to $2,500 per application. The law also places restrictions on who can handle and collect registration forms, making it illegal for individuals convicted of felonies and noncitizens to sign up voters. (However, a federal district court ruled the restriction on noncitizens unconstitutional in March.)

The fines for violating these rules have significantly increased; previously, a third-party group could be fined up to $50,000 in a calendar year, but that amount is now $250,000.

This law has had a chilling effect on third-party groups, some of which have ceased all voter registration activities due to fear of large fines. This effect is also evident on college campuses, where student organizations typically hold voter registration drives during events like orientation and homecoming.

“They are worried about that risk,” said Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative and founder of the voting rights advocacy organization People Power for Florida. “The state is just so aggressive. We and others have been fined… it’s hard to fight back because we’re up against the state of Florida.”

The Florida law is part of a broader trend to make it more difficult for students, particularly out-of-state students, to vote. Several states no longer allow students to use their college IDs to vote, and some, like Wisconsin, have attempted to pass bills requiring universities to provide out-of-state students with guidance on voting in their home states.

Opponents of these measures argue they aim to suppress the vote of young people, who tend to lean liberal and turned out in high numbers in 2020. Republican lawmakers, however, claim these laws are intended to ensure election integrity and prevent fraud.

SB 7050 has already had a notable impact beyond college campuses. Multiple local news outlets have reported on groups ceasing or adjusting their registration efforts. For instance, the Big Bend Voting Rights Project in North Florida has stopped registering voters as a 3PVRO and instead focuses on canvassing neighborhoods to educate residents on how to register themselves.

People Power for Florida is one of the few organizations still holding voter registration events on campuses, often in partnership with student groups. Despite this, the organization has felt the impact of the bill; training volunteers and staff has become more expensive, as have legal fees. For a while, People Power avoided having volunteers handle physical voter registration forms to avoid fines, though this policy was later relaxed.

Connor Effrain, president of the University of Florida College Democrats, noted that registering voters on campuses was already challenging before SB 7050. He recalled being discouraged from taking a voter registration form to a friend who wasn’t on campus, due to fears of potential repercussions if the form was mishandled.

Effrain said that voter registration efforts on campus were much more active before the new law. “You’d have kids going around much more actively on campus to hunt down people who want to register to vote in person,” he said. Now, several organizations that used to register voters on UF’s campus have ceased their activities.

To adapt, some third-party groups are using QR codes that link to Florida’s online voter registration form. While this method avoids the risk of fines, some advocates believe it is less effective than in-person paper registrations. Florida’s online form also requires a Florida driver’s license or ID number, which the paper form does not.

The League of Women Voters, a major voting rights organization, has advised its campus chapters to avoid paper forms to minimize liability. Instead, they show students how to register online or provide blank forms with instructions for mailing or delivering them.

However, these methods may not be as effective. People are more likely to register on the spot than to follow through later. Hobbs, who also works with People Power, registers voters on campus using paper forms but has seen other groups switch to QR codes.

“Usually it’s a tabling event, and they have the QR code and maybe some candy. People can come up and show interest, but it’s definitely not as productive as with paper forms,” she said.

The USF student government, which Hobbs is involved in, used to hold voter registration events every semester, but these have stopped since SB 7050 was enacted. Only one public university, Florida Polytechnic University, responded to inquiries about their voter registration drives, indicating they have not held such an event in several years.

As far as Hobbs knows, People Power is the last group still using paper-and-pen voter registration at USF.

“We have been really rigorous in training our staff members… so we feel we have minimized our risk to the point where we are comfortable using paper forms,” said Allison Minnerly, People Power’s communications director. “We still know that with every legislative session, things can change, so we’re always on our toes. But for now, we are confident in our process and will continue registering voters on college campuses as long as we can.”