Three Strikes Against Florida Voters
Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 11:32:49 AM PDT
By Elizabeth Westfall, Advancement Project
Wendy Weiser, Brennan Center for Justice
Michael Slater, Project Vote
In the past three weeks, Florida courts and election officials have dealt three blows to Floridians who want to cast their ballots in this year’s presidential election. In three separate cases, the Florida Secretary of State, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a federal District Court each issued decisions that will collectively block tens of thousands of eligible Florida citizens from getting on the voter rolls and voting in the 2008 elections. In an election season with thousands of voters trying to take part for the first time, Florida is creating new bureaucratic obstacles, rather than knocking them down. Fortunately, it is not too late for the Governor, the Secretary of State, or the state legislature to intervene.
These three strikes against Florida voters are only the most recent state laws and actions that, cumulatively, have made Florida the most hostile state in the nation to new voters. The hardest hit voters are Americans from historically underrepresented communities who otherwise might vote at record rates. Current census data show that 35% of eligible Florida citizens are not registered to vote—even more than in 2004. Florida is utterly failing to live up to its responsibility to ensure that all eligible voters can participate in our democracy.
Here’s what happened:
On March 31st, Secretary of State Browning gave notice in federal court that he is terminating an agreement in League of Women Voters of Fla. v. Browning and now intends to enforce a law that threatens to shut down voter registration drives. The original version of this law shut down the League of Women Voters of Florida for the first time in its history, as well as other voter registration groups. After a federal court struck down the original law, rather than repealing it, the legislature re-enacted it with minor changes.
The new law can fine individuals as much as $1,000 for helping register their friends and neighbors to vote, even for innocent mistakes. For statewide voter registration groups, the steep fines could be enough to decimate their budgets. The Secretary of State and Legislature are promoting such crippling measures, when in 2004, about 750,000 Florida voters registered through a drive.
On April 3rd, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the December decision of a U.S. District Court Judge to block a statewide law that had kept 14,000 eligible Florida citizens off of the voter rolls, mostly due to typos and other meaningless administrative glitches preventing one government database from matching another. New voters submitting regular registration forms had a 1 in 5 chance of finding their registration unduly delayed or denied. The rates will only get worse in the registration wave leading up to the 2008 elections.
On March 25th, a federal district court in Miami rejected a challenge to yet another portion of Florida’s voter registration law that disqualifies voters because of other meaningless mistakes. Prior to the 2006 federal elections in Florida, thousands of eligible voters submitted applications on time but neglected to check tiny boxes on the registration form confirming their eligibility. According to election officials who testified at trial, these events are likely to repeat themselves this November.
Each of these legal developments in the past three weeks threatens to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters in the 2008 elections. Each has a disproportionate effect on minority citizens. Each also contributes to making Florida a true outlier in the country – piling on provision after provision making it more difficult for eligible voters to register to vote.
The three strikes against Florida voters in the past three weeks come atop at least half a dozen other developments that are unfriendly to voters. They include the state’s failure to offer voter registration at public assistance agencies as required by law and its failure to protect voters from arbitrary purges. They also include current legislative efforts to make Florida’s voter identification law more onerous by prohibiting the use of photo IDs issued by nursing homes or state universities.
Moreover, with less than one month remaining in the state legislative session, Florida lawmakers are pursuing additional legislative actions that would make voting even more difficult. Instead, they should support legislative changes that remove unnecessary, bureaucratic obstacles to voting so that all eligible Floridians can register, vote, and have their votes counted.
The legal developments of the past weeks will make it harder for thousands of citizens to register to vote this year, and time is running out. This is a critical moment for Governor Crist and Secretary Browning, who will be lightning rods when the storm hits in the fall. They need to intervene and ensure that eligible Floridians have an opportunity to register and vote because our democracy works best when everyone participates.
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The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice, including voting rights and fair elections.
Advancement Project is a policy, communications and legal action group that seeks to inspire and mobilize a national racial justice movement to achieve universal opportunity and a just democracy.
Project Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that promotes voter registration and voting in under-represented communities.
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