Wrong target

[budman]

July 28, 2006
The Daytona Beach News-Journal

Wrong target

Florida goes after voter-registration drives


More than a million new voters registered in Florida for the 2004 presidential election season. Nearly half signed up through third parties: political parties, driver's-license offices, labor unions, churches, advocacy groups or the venerable League of Women Voters.

Would all those voters have registered in time if not for the efforts of third-party groups? It's hard to say. Registering is easier now that Florida follows federal motor-voter requirements, but the state still "closes the books" a month prior to each election, meaning residents lose the opportunity to register to vote in an election just as campaigns hit high gear. For example, anyone who wants to vote in the Sept. 5 election must be registered by Aug. 7.

Third-party voter-registration campaigns help remind people of pending deadlines and make it as easy as possible to register. Campaigns are most likely to be effective among low-income people, who might not have time or means to go to the supervisor of elections' office, and the elderly, who might not be able to make the drive.

But those groups won't get as much help this year, thanks to an overly harsh law passed in 2005 by the Florida Legislature. That law -- being challenged as unconstitutional in federal court -- levies big fines against organizations that accept voter-registration forms, but turn them in late or lose them. The League of Women Voters, which collects tens of thousands of voter registration applications statewide, says its annual budget would be wiped out if just 16 applications were mislaid. And, so, the league won't be conducting registration campaigns this year, a significant loss to Florida voters.

Florida has seen problems with voter-registration drives. One particularly nasty scheme tricked voters by asking them to sign petitions in support of medical marijuana -- without telling them they were also signing a form that changed their county of registration. Some groups destroyed voter registration applications that didn't state the "correct" party affiliation.

A law that goes after intentional bad acts makes sense, which is why Florida already had such laws on the books. It's a crime to destroy voter applications or defraud voters. But the 2005 law goes much further.

Organizations will be fined $250 for every voter registration turned in more than 10 days late (even if it's turned in well before voter rolls close), $500 for each application turned in after book closing and $5,000 for each application not submitted. There's no mercy allowed -- groups are just as liable for an application destroyed in a flood or burned in a car crash as for applications shredded with malice.

Unfairly, the new law doesn't touch anyone working directly for a political party. While independent, all-volunteer groups face zero-tolerance policies, paid political operatives do not.

In a hearing this week, a federal judge in Miami heard testimony that political parties and even elections-office workers have mislaid voter-registration applications. The judge also heard from an elections expert that the new law -- and the resulting decision by many nonprofit groups not to register voters this year -- will seriously depress voter turnout in the fall elections.

The evidence might be enough to overturn the law. If not, lawmakers should repeal it.