The catastrophe rolling through the panhandle of Florida right now makes a lawsuit initiated by state Democrats on voter registration a no-brainer. Voter registration in the state ended Tuesday of this week, but evacuations and the closing of government offices throughout the state's panhandle ahead of Hurricane Michael mean that many residents who aren't yet registered could not meet that deadline. Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s administration has told election supervisors that offices that were closed on Tuesday could accept paper applications when they reopened, but just for the first day they are open.
The Democrats are suing because that one day is clearly inadequate for people who have evacuated and might not be able to return home in time to register. "This limited, confusing, and inconsistent solution is not sufficient to adequately protect the voting rights of Floridians," the lawsuit argues. Republicans argue—deplorably—that Democrats are only doing this because the area is heavily Democratic. It's just fine with Republicans if these folks are disenfranchised, no matter the cause.
Republicans also point to the fact that they now have online voter registration, so there's no excuse for people not to have registered before the deadline. Because of course they should have done that before running for their lives from this storm, or preparing their homes to shelter in place. Beyond that, this new system is "A mess!" That's according to Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher.
In an email to Politico, Bucher wrote "We have had hundreds of complaints about the system being down or intermittent all weekend. On 10/6/18 we only received 1 online voter registration, which is highly unusual as we usually get hundreds." She added that they had "fielded more than 1,500 calls" just Tuesday morning, "which is an unusually high volume." One would-be voter, Aaron Krolik, a 40-year-old Delray Beach resident, told Politico that it "was just hell," trying to get registered. "The website was just not working. I emailed and called and had to spend time getting it fixed." The state, however, maintains that the site and online registrations have been "immensely successful."
Right now the priority is clearly public safety, but as soon as the storm has passed, the courts will need to act quickly—as a judge did two years ago when the deadline was extended a week after Hurricane Matthew—to make sure that Floridians get to elect an administration that will best look out for them in the next hurricane season.