One of the worst aspects of Florida’s new patchwork of laws designed to suppress voting is the law that makes it much more difficult to register new people to vote. It’s so bad that even the League of Women Voters suspended their voter registration programs there. And now you can see why:
All Sabu Williams wanted to do on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend was register voters…
After the rule was first put in place, the NAACP was the only group in Okaloosa County that braved the new pitfalls and continued to register voters. However, when they registered voters over MLK weekend, they were charged with submitting the forms an hour late on Tuesday, despite the fact that they were unable to submit forms on Monday because it was a holiday.
“We’re here the very first day that you’re open at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and you’re saying that we’re an hour late?” Williams asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He soon received a letter from the state supervisor of elections. “We appreciate you going out and registering voters,” the letter read. “However, you were late for two of those and if you’re late anymore we’re going to turn this over to the Florida Department of Justice for prosecution.”
This is purely designed to intimidate people into not registering new voters, and the sole purpose is to keep people who might vote Democratic away from the polls.
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eric
July 18, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I was glad to read via Ed’s link that the 48-hour window rule used to threaten him with prosecution has since been blocked by a Judge.
I can’t imagine any legitimate reason for such a rule. Saying you have to turn in everything within a week or two of collecting them, okay. But 48 hours? That screams ‘preventing weekend vote drives.’
Blondin
July 18, 2012 at 11:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Or at least if the limit was phrased in terms of ‘working days’ instead of hours to allow for weekends and holidays.
Gregory in Seattle
July 18, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For about three years now, elections in Washington state are done by mail: the counties mail ballots to registered voters, who have about three weeks to fill them out and them back on or before the day of the election. No id required, although ballots must be signed and the signature must match the one that’s on file with the elections office.
Now, the state is launching an initiative to register voters via Facebook. The state has had online voter registration for years; a new Facebook app will link in to the state’s database (by way of Facebook’s for-profit database, of course.) Fortunately, we have non-partisan registration (you are a registered voter rather than a registered Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, etc.)
I think this is too far in the wrong direction — ballots never get mailed or arrive late, the effective poll tax of postage, handing off what is obviously a ballot to an indefinite number of annonymous, unaccountable people in the hopes that it arrives at the elections office — but still, I find the efforts to suppress voting in other parts of the country kind of interesting, in a car crash on the side of the road kind of way.
raven
July 18, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Seems pretty arbitrary. Which I guess is the point.
When I last registered to vote, some person on the steps of the library gave me a form, I filled it out and sent it in.
In Washington, you can register to vote using the internet through Facebook.
d cwilson
July 18, 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The most disquieting thing is not just the 48-hour window, but the fact that you can be prosecuted for nothing other than being “late”.
This is definitely the worst of these terrible voter suppression laws.
Mr Ed
July 18, 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
… And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean ‘n’ ugly ‘n’ nasty ‘n’ horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, “What were you arrested for, kid?”
Being an hour later on submitting a voter registration form.
Johnny Vector
July 18, 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh man, it’s way worse than just that. Read the order blocking the implementation of the law to see the other exciting provisions, like requiring any volunteer who even “solicits people to register” to be registered. And not only that, but to swear under oath that they have read a form that the state provides. A form which in fact lies about the law:
Raging Bee
July 18, 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s so bad that even the League of Women Voters suspended their voter registration programs there.
Mission Accomplished! If Mutt Romney wins Florida, and Florida carries him to victory, we’ll all know his election was illegitimate.
Woof
July 18, 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
#6 Mr Ed
And they all moved away from me on the Group W bench…
Area Man
July 18, 2012 at 12:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They really tilt their hand with these attacks on voter registration. The voter ID laws and other crap at least have the fig leaf of preventing voter fraud. Attacking voter registration is only defensible in terms of making it harder for people to vote.
eric
July 18, 2012 at 2:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Somewhat related, WashPo just released this article on the cost of voter registration measures.
Here’s a quote for you:
Yeah, that’s not restrictive at all. How long to some republican suggests that voter registration be limited to Feb 29th?
meg
July 18, 2012 at 8:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hang on – they can be prosecuted for being late?
What am I missing – surely you can just say ‘no, can’t accept them’ (not that I’m saying that’s right). Why prosecute? That’s just intimidation.
Dr X
July 18, 2012 at 9:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So is suppressed voter registration a manifestation of American Exceptionalism and our singular and divinely ordained responsibility for spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world?
StevoR
July 19, 2012 at 1:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What the blazes?! Prosecuting people for being an hour late registering voter forms? Que? Really?
I’m with meg #12 on this. I don’t get it.
This was the proposed law – and it actually passed? Whoah!
@8. Raging Bee :
(/Pedant) Not necessarily. That would depend on the margin of victory and other factors surely?
It is possible to postulate scenarios in which this voter non-registering rubbish plays little or no significant part in the electoral outcome.
For examples, if Obama lost by 80% or so of the vote, having seen the US economy really tanked in a global depression. Or if Mitt somehow thrashes Obama in a presidential debate (Don’t laugh, it *could * happen albeit odds are about 99-1 against!) and says something that powerfully convinces the vast majority of Floridians to vote for him on some special policy of his (spacecoast new projects & quintupling NASA’s budget please?!) or /& Obama manages to massively offend Florida with some terrible gaffe or policy on his part?
Of course, such postulated scenarios are very improbable and more than likely this could potentially have some really negative electoral effect perhaps leading to an illegitimate “victory” for rMoney.
I’m not endorsing this apparent Republican tactic at all and am absolutely opposed to it and appalled by it. But, well, pedant here pointing out the uncertainty factor.
davem
July 19, 2012 at 4:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks for the reminder Ed, to fill in my electoral roll form. It was delivered to every house by the local council. I sign to say who in the house is eligible to vote, then post it back. It’s that simple. The US is 100 years behind the times.
eric
July 19, 2012 at 9:24 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The US is 100 years behind the times.
Or 100 years ahead in realpolitiks. Your parties are naively giving up mechanisms they could use to win for “the interests of the state.” Ours are more fierce and ditched such baggage in the 1800s, if not earlier.
[/snark]
Rick Pikul
July 20, 2012 at 12:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@davem: You had to go to that much effort? I did my annual update a few months ago, I ticked off the box on my tax return saying “give my info to Elections Canada.”
dingojack
July 20, 2012 at 2:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Weirdly, here the Australian Electoral Commission (a QANGO*, I believe) sent a card that asked us to update our details if there had been a change. Nope, so there’s nothing to be done. Couldn’t be easier.
:) Dingo
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* Quasi-autonomous non-government organisation. A lovely acronym