Interesting story out of the Florida Keys today related to local Supervisors of Elections getting involved in the Voting Rights Act litigation involving HB1355. The memorandum in support of the motion to intervene that includes the Supervisors, the ACLU, and Project Vote is also online.
News
Preclearance surprise – State changes course and asks Federal District Court to approve HB1355
Here’s the quote from the Secretary of State’s news release: “The purpose of filing in the federal district court is to ensure that the changes to Florida’s election law are judged on their merits by eliminating the risk of a ruling impacted by outside influence,… ince the passage of HB 1355, we have seen...
Protests and poltical committee litigation
The St. Pete Times is reporting on a protest yesterday in Tampa related to HB1355. Meanwhile, the AP & Miami Herald are reporting on a hearing today related to a libertarian group challenging Florida’s political committee regulatory structure. The plaintiffs’ counsel has a summary of their suit on their website. It appears to be one...
Where do I vote in Florida?
Confused about where to vote? – look it up online at http://registration.elections.myflorida.com/
Florida election law bill vetoed
The Florida Governor vetoed HB1207, a recently passed election law bill. According to the bill analysis posted online, the bill would have reenacted and amended provisions related to electioneering communications and electioneering communication organizations (ECOs), revised provisions relating to use of local government funds for political advertising, and authorized the leader of each political...
Latest on the Supreme Court and the Voting Rights Act
A large number of interesting pieces on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Here’s a few interesting ones: Washington Post The Hill NYTimes Washington Times While the majority of the Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of Section 5, it did open the door to more...
Election bill dead for this session?
Numerous reports, including this one in the Miami Herald, indicate that leader of the Florida House of Representatives does not think there is enough time left in this session for the proposed elections bills. With the legislative session looking at either an extension or a special session this year, we’ll see what happens.
America Votes! Supplement
I contributed a chapter to the American Bar Association to the America Votes! Supplement – just published today.
A return to the blog.
Thanks for all of you who have asked about this blog, I’m now resuming my work on it. I’ve been working on a forthcoming publication on these kind of issues, so that has taken time away from this space. With that concluded, I’ll be posting again here. With the Florida Legislature in session, I’m...
VOTE
I think that says it all – if you need to find your polling place, go to the State site then contact your local Supervisor of Elections for locations. Polls open 7am-7pm.