Florida Election Law

The latest in Florida Election Law issues, cases, legislation, and news.

A personal blog of

Ken Tinkler.

  

  

 

Copyright 2016 Ken Tinkler

Thinking about delegates

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Given the presidential campaign this year, more and more attention is starting to be paid to what will happen at this year’s nominating conventions.  As this TBT article outlines, on the Republican side of the aisle, competition is fierce for the 99 delegate and 96 alternate delegate spots for the July 18-21 event in Cleveland, Ohio.   The Republican state party has provides their delegate process online at this page.

The Green Papers, an excellent resource for election information (if a bit old-school in its HTML), outlines that the delegate allocation is as follows:  99 total delegates – 10 base at-large / 81 re: 27 congressional districts / 3 party / 5 bonus.  Florida was a “winner take all” state for this party, resulting in all delegates pledged to one candidate.

How long are these delegates bound?  According to a September 2015 copy of the RPOF Rules posted by the Martin County, Florida affiliate:

10 B. All Delegates and Alternate Delegates Awarded to Statewide Winner of Florida Presidential Preference Primary

The Republican presidential candidate receiving the highest number of statewide votes at the Florida Presidential Preference Primary shall be awarded all delegates and alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention. The delegates and alternate delegates shall be elected as prescribed by Rule 10(D). The Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, or his or her designee, shall be bound to count and cast all delegate votes for that presidential candidate during the first three convention ballots unless the convention rules state that delegates are bound for more than three ballots. If the candidate to whom the delegate votes are bound releases the delegates or withdraws his or her candidacy, then the delegate votes will not be bound to any candidate. No delegate, other than the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, or his or her designee, shall be entitled to cast any vote on his or her own behalf until the fourth convention ballot.  (emphasis added)

There are some questions being raised, however, as to whether any of the delegates are actually bound to their state’s choices.

 

 

Mostly done counting in Florida & calls for reform

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With the State of Florida’s 1st set of Unofficial Returns published, most major media outlets called the Presidential race for President Obama.  The percentage difference between the candidates was larger than the amount that would trigger any kind of recount and any remaining ballots would not be of enough quantity to change the outcome. 

The media coverage of Florida has not been kind, and calls for changes have begun.  Notably, former Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and former Mayor of Tampa Pam Iorio has called for reform on her Facebook page, while the Palm Beach Post reports that groups that have litigated with the State previously over election law issues have also called for changes and a federal investigation.  The Governor of Florida issued a statement asking the Secretary of State to review the Florida election process.

Disputes over Early Voting Hours Continue

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With Florida’s early voting process set to end on Saturday evening, the ongoing dispute over the changes to early voting passed by the Florida Legislature in 2011 continues.  In 2008, the Florida Governor extended early voting hours due to concerns about turnout.  Requests have been made for the current Governor to take the same action, but that appears to be unlikely.  Here are some current news reports:

Federal court rejects DOJ restraining order request related to Florida voter purge

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Ruling from the bench, numerous media outlets are reporting the Federal judge handing the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge to Florida’s voter purge and its compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) has rejected the DOJ’s request for a restraining order. 

The Judge apparently relied on the state’s claim that the purge effort had stopped for now and his interpretation that the NVRA prohibition on systematic removal of voters close to an election did not apply to the systematic removal of noncitizens.  The Miami Herald has the details. 

DOJ objects to Florida voter purge

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The Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has sent a letter to the State of Florida outlining two objections to the State’s recent effort to purge non-citizen registrants: 1) the new process was not precleared under the Voting Rights Act (5 of Florida’s counties are preclearance jurisdictions where changes to voting procedures must be preapproved) and 2) the process appears to violate the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which prohibits such list maintenance activities within 90 days of a federal election.  (Letter copy courtesy of MSNBC.)  The letter gives the State until June 6th to respond.

Senate hearing to be held in Florida regarding election laws

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In a letter this week, posted online by the Tampa Tribune, Sen. Dick Durbin responded to Sen. Bill Nelson’s request that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights investigate HB1355 by agreeing with Nelson’s concerns and stating he will conduct a field hearing in Florida.  No date for the hearing has been set yet, but the ACLU, according to the Orlando Sentinel, is requesting Durbin hold three hearings before the Florida Presidential Primary in January.

VOTE

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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.

New Florida Presidential Preference Vote a possibility

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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.