Voting War Heats Up in Florida
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law: http://www.brennancenter.org/
A federal judge last week blocked key provisions of a restrictive law regulating voter registration drives in Florida, the same day the Department of Justice demanded that state officials stop purging the voter rolls.
The Brennan Center represents the Florida League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote, and Florida PIRG Education Fund in challenging the law, which required groups to submit registration forms within 48 hours and forced volunteers to sign intimidating forms before registering voters. “Allowing responsible organizations to conduct voter-registration drives—thus making it easier for citizens to register and vote—promotes democracy,” U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle wrote.
“We have seen a wave of suppressive laws in the last year or two in state legislatures,” the Brennan Center’s Lee Rowland, who argued the case in court, said on MSNBC’s Politics Nation. “If this decision means anything, it means that laws that are passed with the purpose to crack down on voting are illegitimate, they’re unlawful, and they need to be blocked, and this federal court did that.”
Just hours after Hinkle issued his decision, the Justice Department “asked Florida to stop searching for and purging the names of possible ineligible voters,” saying the state may be violating federal law, including the Voting Rights Act and the Motor Voter law. In recent weeks, Florida officials claimed to have found 182,000 voters who may not be citizens and took steps to write to and remove 2,600 of them from the rolls.
Despite the Justice Department’s warning, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner remained defiant, saying that the state “will continue to act in a responsible and cautious manner when presented with credible information about potentially ineligible voters.” Meanwhile, the state association for election officials has told counties to halt the purge.
“I recommend that Supervisors of Elections cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a Court,” Ron Labasky, general counsel for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, wrote in a memo to the state’s 67 supervisors. “There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue,” said Vicki Davis, president of the association.
“People are fighting back and succeeding,” the Brennan Center’s Myrna Pérez told MSNBC. Florida's policy makers should make voter registration more accurate and more accessible by modernizing the system, “not by repeating the kind of discredited and problematic purge programs that have taken place in the past,” Pérez wrote in the Orlando Sentinel. “Many states are adopting systems that use 21st-century technology to increase the number of eligible voters and remove ineligible voters with more accuracy.”
For more on Florida’s voter purge listen to Pérez on NPR’s Latino USA and watch Brennan Center President Michael Waldman on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Daily Rundown.
Also read Diana Kasdan’s Huffington Post op-ed on the voter registration decision, and a column from The New York Times’ Charles Blow on “darkness in the sunshine state.”
For more voting updates, see the Center’s voting newsletter on our blog. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox!
A federal judge last week blocked key provisions of a restrictive law regulating voter registration drives in Florida, the same day the Department of Justice demanded that state officials stop purging the voter rolls.
The Brennan Center represents the Florida League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote, and Florida PIRG Education Fund in challenging the law, which required groups to submit registration forms within 48 hours and forced volunteers to sign intimidating forms before registering voters. “Allowing responsible organizations to conduct voter-registration drives—thus making it easier for citizens to register and vote—promotes democracy,” U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle wrote.
“We have seen a wave of suppressive laws in the last year or two in state legislatures,” the Brennan Center’s Lee Rowland, who argued the case in court, said on MSNBC’s Politics Nation. “If this decision means anything, it means that laws that are passed with the purpose to crack down on voting are illegitimate, they’re unlawful, and they need to be blocked, and this federal court did that.”
Just hours after Hinkle issued his decision, the Justice Department “asked Florida to stop searching for and purging the names of possible ineligible voters,” saying the state may be violating federal law, including the Voting Rights Act and the Motor Voter law. In recent weeks, Florida officials claimed to have found 182,000 voters who may not be citizens and took steps to write to and remove 2,600 of them from the rolls.
Despite the Justice Department’s warning, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner remained defiant, saying that the state “will continue to act in a responsible and cautious manner when presented with credible information about potentially ineligible voters.” Meanwhile, the state association for election officials has told counties to halt the purge.
“I recommend that Supervisors of Elections cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a Court,” Ron Labasky, general counsel for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, wrote in a memo to the state’s 67 supervisors. “There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue,” said Vicki Davis, president of the association.
“People are fighting back and succeeding,” the Brennan Center’s Myrna Pérez told MSNBC. Florida's policy makers should make voter registration more accurate and more accessible by modernizing the system, “not by repeating the kind of discredited and problematic purge programs that have taken place in the past,” Pérez wrote in the Orlando Sentinel. “Many states are adopting systems that use 21st-century technology to increase the number of eligible voters and remove ineligible voters with more accuracy.”
For more on Florida’s voter purge listen to Pérez on NPR’s Latino USA and watch Brennan Center President Michael Waldman on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Daily Rundown.
Also read Diana Kasdan’s Huffington Post op-ed on the voter registration decision, and a column from The New York Times’ Charles Blow on “darkness in the sunshine state.”
For more voting updates, see the Center’s voting newsletter on our blog. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox!
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