Reply to Thread

Judge blocks Florida voting law - Politico (blog)

A lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters and New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice ends with a ruling -- cheered by Democrats -- halting implementation of some pieces of a controversial Florida voter registration law:

The law imposed a $1,000-a-day fine on groups that fail to give election authorities voter registration forms filled out by Floridians within the 48-hour deadline. The League of Women Voters said the requirement was so onerous that it stopped holding voter registration drives in Florida after doing them for 72 years. …
Ruling in the state capital of Tallahassee, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle granted a preliminary injunction also blocking enforcement of other parts of the law putting new restrictions on groups conducting voter registration drives.
The judge blocked a requirement that voter registration groups notify the state within 10 days if any volunteer or employee stops working for the organization.
Hinkle said the law and state regulations implementing it "impose burdensome record-keeping and reporting requirements that serve little if any purpose, thus rendering them unconstitutional."
Under federal law, organizations have the right to collect and mail in voter registration forms, but the "harsh and impractical 48-hour deadline" effectively prohibited them from using the mail, the judge said in his ruling. …
Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said the 48-hour rule would have ensured that voter registration groups were held accountable and that citizens were registered in a timely and proper manner.

The ruling, and the law that triggered the lawsuit, are more than just a local voting-rights dispute. They're part of a national debate over Republican proposals to regulate voting and voter registration, which the GOP calls an attempt to crack down on voter fraud and Democrats call an attempt to discourage turnout. The Brennan Center previously published a study projecting that GOP voting laws could result in 5 million "young, minority, and low-income" Americans finding new hurdles to participation in 2012.
Read more about: Florida, 2012 Elections