Federal Judge upholds Florida 29 day voter registration requirement
March 27, 2008
The Miami Herald is reporting that the requirement in Florida that voters register 29 days before an election was held to be reasonable and not imposing a severe burden on constitutional rights by a Federal Judge in Miami . The Elections Supervisors (Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Palm Beach Counties) in the case previously settled the case, agreeing to pay fees and to institute a “grace period” for voter registrations if such a change were allowed by law. To date, I am not aware of any such change.
Florida re-do of primary dead for now.
March 18, 2008
The NY Times and other sources are reporting the Florida Democratic Party has given up on the idea of a new primary before the party’s summer convention. Since the idea is still alive in Michigan, I’d be surprised if more discussion doesn’t happen, at least while the Florida Legislature is still in session. The reasons given in Florida appear to be costs, ongoing change of voting technology, and the need to preclear changes under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
New Florida Presidential Preference Vote a possibility
March 6, 2008
Since this issue is getting bipartisan attention, with the statements from the Florida and Michigan governors, I thought I’d start writing about it here. As you know, the Florida Presidential Preference Primary was moved earlier this year. As a result, the Democratic National Committee has reportedly stated the Florida vote would not count towards delegates at this summer’s convention. According to reports, the Republican National Committee will only reduce Florida’s delegate count by 50%. With the Democratic race still to be decided, the question of a new vote in Florida continues to come up in the media. This will be interesting to watch as the Presidential Preference Primary is spelled out in statute - a repeat election could cause all sorts of challenges determining what rules to apply. I’ll write more about the statutory issues as this debate goes on.