Early voting days reduced
TALLAHASSEE -- Critics say a new Florida election law that went into effect Thursday with Republican Gov. Rick Scott's signature will discourage some likely Democratic voters, including minorities and young people, from registering or casting ballots.
TALLAHASSEE -- Critics say a new Florida election law that went into effect Thursday with Republican Gov. Rick Scott's signature will discourage some likely Democratic voters, including minorities and young people, from registering or casting ballots.
The law reduces early voting days and adds new regulations for voter registration drives. It also requires voters who make address changes at the polls to cast provisional ballots that may not be counted.
Sponsors in the GOP-controlled Legislature argued the law, similar to proposals that have been introduced by Republicans in about 25 other states, is needed to prevent election fraud.
"It is paramount to our democracy that we protect the credibility of Florida elections," House State Affairs Committee Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, said in a statement. "Each unlawful ballot takes away the vote of a Florida citizen casting a legal ballot."
Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith called it a "voter suppression" law and "nothing more than a power-grab by Republicans."
Scott signed the bill (HB 1355) without ceremony or comment, but it drew a firestorm of reaction from Democrats and other opponents, including some nonpartisan groups, saying it's an assault on voters.
St. Johns reaction
St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Penny Halyburton said the new law would have little effect.
"We have 143,000 registered voters," Halyburton said. "The latest census puts our population at 190,000. Our registration is right on. There may be more effect in smaller, more rural counties."
Prospective voters can register "almost anywhere" now: online, at banks, public assistance offices, libraries and the Department of Motor Vehicles, she said.
But, she added, the law is more restrictive overall.
"When people run for legislative office, they immediately become election experts and manipulate the laws to help them with the next election," she said. "But they were candidates. None of them have conducted an election."
Voting attack charged
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said, "If the law weren't so grotesquely un-American, you'd almost want to congratulate them for the audacity and efficiency of the attack. With just one bill, they made it harder to register to vote, harder to cast your vote and harder to have your vote counted."
Secretary of State Kurt Browning said the law will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for preclearance under the federal Voting Rights Act to determine if it discriminates against minority voters. If U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder determines that it does, the law cannot be enforced.
Until the Justice Department makes a decision the law will be in effect everywhere except five counties for which preclearance is required, Browning said. That includes a special election Tuesday in Miami-Dade County for several office. A lawsuit has been filed in Miami-Dade challenging the county's decision to cancel early voting Sunday to comply with the anticipated new statute before Scott signed it.
-- St. Augustine Record reporter Peter Guinta contributed to this story.
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