Florida Court Blocks Law That Halted Most Voter Registration Drives

by Mike Hall, Aug 29, 2006

A federal judge yesterday blocked a new Florida vote registration law—backed by Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature—that had halted voter registration drives by the Florida AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters of Florida and virtually all nonpartisan groups since earlier this year. Following yesterday’s ruling, Florida state federation President Cindy Hall asked all the state’s central labor councils to resume registration activities and other nonpartisan groups have done the same.

U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz ruled the so-called “third party” voter registration act “chills” first amendment speech and association rights by imposing onerous fines and deadlines on third party registrations. She issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing the voter registration law. A trial is scheduled later this year, but a spokesman for the state’s Division of Elections says the Bush administration plans to appeal the ruling.

The Florida state federation, the league and other nonpartisan groups filed suit in May against the law that opponents described as an attempt at voter suppression. Many of the groups that conduct voter registration drives reach out to minority, low-income, women and senior voters and people with disabilities.

Florida is not the only state where Republican legislatures have passed new laws that could repress voter turnout in low-income, minority and other groups. New laws—supposedly aimed at combating voter fraud—were approved in Ohio, Missouri, Georgia,  Indiana and Washington State. Courts either have ruled against the new laws or cases are pending.

Gary Rosen, an attorney on the Florida case, says:

The specific targeting of non-partisan voter registration groups with these onerous fines gives another black eye to Florida, a state already plagued with a less-than pristine track record on voter registration and election issues.

The law creates a complicated system of deadlines and crippling fines for the missed deadlines and mishandled registration cards. Under the law anyone—from the person who might register a voter in a door-to-door registration drive, to the head of the organization conducting the drive—could be held liable for the fines. But the law excludes the Republican and Democratic parties from its provisions.

Seitz writes:

…the Court finds that the Third-Party Voter Registration Law unconstitutionally discriminates in favor of political parties by excluding them from the definition of third party voter registration organization … the Third-Party Voter Registration Law’s combination of heavy, strict, joint and several liability fines is unconstitutional as it chills Plaintiffs First Amendment speech and association rights…The evidence in this case does not demonstrate a significant problem with voter registration applications from third party voter registration organizations.

The new law’s “chilling” effect was so severe, after Bush signed it into law and it went into effect, the Florida AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters of Florida and virtually every nonpartisan group that normally engage in voter registration drives suspended their campaigns because of the financial risks.

The judge’s ruling on Florida’s voter registration law came a little more than one month after the federal Voting Rights Act was renewed. The battle to maintain the landmark 1965  law, designed to ensure that all those eligible to vote can exercise that right, was nearly derailed when a group of southern extremist House Republicans attempted to gut the bill. But a coalition of civil rights, labor, religious and other groups mobilized to build bipartisan support and win passage.

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