TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — In a continued effort to secure Florida’s elections, Republican lawmakers are now looking to strengthen the verification process of voter eligibility by adding additional requirements for Floridians.

The bill sponsor says he wants to close current loopholes in the process and prevent future voter fraud.

Republicans behind the effort say now is not the time to rest on our laurels and that this bill will only continue to secure our elections. However, Democrats argue that the bill will only turn voters away.

State Representative Berny Jacques of St. Petersburg says he wants to reinforce public trust in the state’s election system.

“We have been leading the nation in reforms, and it’s not the time to rest on our laurels. We must continue to secure our elections to make sure that there are no gaps in our system, especially when it comes to non-citizens voting in our elections, we must ensure that never occurs in the state of Florida,” said Jacques.

After the 2020 election, the Florida legislature enacted election integrity reforms. Representative Jacques adds that his efforts in this legislation now are a continuation of that fight.

“You cannot have a sovereign country when you have things that compromise the integrity of our elections, and so this is a continuation of that fight,” said Jacques.

House Bill 831 adds measures to verify citizenship during the voter registration process, looks to remove people who no longer live in the state, adds an indicator on driver’s licenses and IDs of non-citizens, etc.

“This bill adds additional measures to verify citizenship upfront during the registration process to make sure that those who are registered in our elections are in fact citizens. It also has voter roll maintenance and audits on a quarterly basis to make sure that those who are no longer living in our state, that might have moved, are removed from our rolls and those who aren’t living, period, right, those who are deceased, are removed from the rolls and also make sure that non-citizens that are in our voter rolls are also removed,” said Jacques.

With that, Democrats in opposition to the bill say the additions will only turn voters away.

“They made it seem like we have this massive fraud. You have all of these people from someplace else voting, the dead people are voting, this is all just a bunch of foolishness. So, for me, this is trying to make it more difficult for people. You put up as many roadblocks as you possibly can, hoping that people are not going to vote,” said State Representative Dianne Hart, D-Tampa.

While the legislation has been introduced, it has not yet been called for a vote. Representative Jacques says he believes the bill hasn’t been called for a vote yet due to the number of election bills filed this session and hopes his colleagues will see the importance of his efforts.

“This is one worth pursuing because the integrity of our elections is paramount,” said Jacques.