Judge blocks Florida's voter registration law
GARY FINEOUT
MiamiHerald.com
Dec 19, 2007
Judge blocks Florida's voter registration law
TALLAHASSEE -- A federal judge ordered Florida election authorities to stop enforcing a 2-year-old voter registration law, ruling Tuesday there is proof that the change put in place by the GOP-controlled Legislature has resulted in ``actual harm to real individuals.''
Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who has maintained that the law is meant to battle voter fraud, said the state will immediately appeal and he questioned the timing of the decision. Florida residents who want to vote in the Jan. 29 presidential primary must register by the end of December.
About 14,000 people have not been able to register since January 2006 because of Florida's ''no match'' law, which requires Social Security or driver's license numbers on voter-registration forms match those in federal or state databases.
The law has been challenged by the NAACP and other groups that say it unfairly blocks blacks and Hispanics from being able to register.
Among their complaints: that the process may be prone to error because Hispanics sometimes use two surnames, which could throw the process off, and that many blacks use nontraditional spellings for their names.
U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, said the fact that 14,000 people cannot vote outweighs any arguments that the law is needed to battle voter fraud.
''The disenfranchisement, however unintentional, causes damage to the election system that cannot be repaired after the election has passed,'' Mickle wrote.
The judge also noted that the state had not shown any evidence that those who registered were ''engaged in voter fraud.'' He suggested the state could use other items, such as utility bills, to prove a voter's identity.
Mickle granted an injunction to the NAACP and other groups that blocks Browning and state officials from enforcing the law while the suit is still pending. But Mickle also said in his ruling that the NAACP's attorneys had not proven that the intent behind the law was discriminatory or showed racial bias.
What is not clear from his order is what will happen to Floridians who have already had their voter registration forms rejected under the no-match law.
''What needs to be decided is, is it prospective or does it goes back?'' said Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Lester Sola.
Many of those whose registrations were rejected are from South Florida. The groups that filed the lawsuit told the court that 35 percent are from Miami-Dade County and 8 percent from Broward.
A spokesman for Browning's office said state officials are still trying to figure out what to do about those previously rejected. Under the law, election supervisors are supposed to tell voters their registration forms don't match other database information.
Voters who do not correct the discrepancy are to be given a provisional ballot on Election Day and then given three days to prove their identity.
Florida made the registration-law change when it established a new statewide voter registration database as required under the Help America Vote Act. Browning insisted that the Florida law meets federal requirements despite the judge's ruling.
''This law is perfectly consistent with the Help America Vote Act, and in my view the Legislature appropriately enacted this important anti-fraud provision as part of Florida's Election Code,'' Browning said in a statement.
''I also think it is is unwise to introduce such a major change in Florida's election procedures on the eve of Florida's presidential preference primary,'' Browning added.
Those who helped with the lawsuit hailed the ruling, which they said is consistent with similar legal challenges in other states.
''We think it's a big win for the voters of Florida who have one fewer administrative hurdle and bureaucratic barrier in their way,'' said Justin Levitt, an attorney for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.
