Florida Election Law

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

A personal blog of

Ken Tinkler.

  

  

 

Copyright 2016 Ken Tinkler

Talk of Election Reform continues…

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So far, three bills have been filed for the 2013 Legislative Session related to elections:

In Miami-Dade, the County Mayor has appointed a citizen’s Mayor’s Election Advisory Group.  The Miami Herald reported on their first meeting.  Their next meeting is December 14th, with an “after-action” report expected from the Supervisor of Elections with reports already surfacing that precinct distribution may have led to some of the issues. 

The Sun Sentinel reports that legislative committee meetings have begun, but, to no one’s surprise, so far there appears to be partisan disagreement about the reasons for the delays in ballot counting in parts of the state.  The Secretary of State has begun a tour of elections offices, but the incoming Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections has already questioned the effectiveness of the department’s approach, according to the Tampa Bay Times.  TBT’s PolitiFact also looked at the Secretary’s recent comment about turnout.

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.

Yes, Florida is still counting votes…

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I’ll post more on the various issues that occured last night, but yes, Florida is still counting votes for the Presidential and other races – but that is normal.  Despite false rumors to the contrary, Florida does count every vote that comes in, including late absentee. provisional, and military/overseas ballots.  That process takes many days after the election and the final results will not be certified on the state and local level until all of the ballots are processed.  There are still various races throughout the state within the margin of error for potential recounts, so some results in local races may change.  As of this writing, Florida is the only “uncalled” state in the Presidential race, but given the wide separation in electoral votes, Florida’s 29 electoral votes will not decide that election this time. 

State vote counts will continue to be posted on the State’s website and on individual Supervisor of Elections websites.

Early Voting Ends, Disputes Continue

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With the Governor taking no action on requests for an extension of early voting, the early voting process ended on Saturday evening (or Sunday morning, depending how long it took to allow every in line at closing time to vote at individual locations).  Absentee voting at election offices continued on Sunday (in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Orange and Pinellas) and Monday, but ballots could no longer be mailed in and be certain to arrive by 7pm on Tuesday, so these voters need to deliver  their absentee ballots directly to the appropriate Supervisor of Elections office.

ABC/AP reports Early Voting was extended by a court order on Sunday in one location in Orange County because an early voting site had a temporary closure during the day on Saturday due to a security issue.  The Florida Democratic Party announced it had filed a federal lawsuit seeking to extend voting hours.  More from Politico, NYT, & the  Miami Herald,

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:

Palm Beach Problems and Ballot Duplication

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Stories continue to surface about election problems in Palm Beach County: 

Duplication of ballots happens every election at every Supervisor of Elections’ office throughout the state, but usually not on this scale.  Here is the statute section that governs duplications:

101.5614 Canvass of returns.—

(5)(a) If any absentee ballot is physically damaged so that it cannot properly be counted by the automatic tabulating equipment, a true duplicate copy shall be made of the damaged ballot in the presence of witnesses and substituted for the damaged ballot. Likewise, a duplicate ballot shall be made of an absentee ballot containing an overvoted race or a marked absentee ballot in which every race is undervoted which shall include all valid votes as determined by the canvassing board based on rules adopted by the division pursuant to s. 102.166(4). All duplicate ballots shall be clearly labeled “duplicate,” bear a serial number which shall be recorded on the defective ballot, and be counted in lieu of the defective ballot. After a ballot has been duplicated, the defective ballot shall be placed in an envelope provided for that purpose, and the duplicate ballot shall be tallied with the other ballots for that precinct.
(b) A true duplicate copy shall be made of each federal write-in absentee ballot in the presence of witnesses and substituted for the federal write-in absentee ballot. The duplicate ballot must include all valid votes as determined by the canvassing board based on rules adopted by the division pursuant to s. 102.166(4). All duplicate ballots shall be clearly labeled “duplicate,” bear a serial number that shall be recorded on the federal write-in absentee ballot, and be counted in lieu of the federal write-in absentee ballot. After a ballot has been duplicated, the federal write-in absentee ballot shall be placed in an envelope provided for that purpose, and the duplicate ballot shall be tallied with other ballots for that precinct.

Federal District Court holds that NVRA does not limit Florida purge

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A Federal District Court Judge in South Florida has issued an order in the case of Arcia, et al. v. Detzner (posted online by the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University) denying the Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction and summary judgment and held that the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) does not limit the State of Florida from attempting to purge ineligible non-citizen voters within 90 days of an election.  The issue of the NVRA’s limitation on voter list maintenance programs was raised by various civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice.   

From the order:

“Certainly, the NVRA does not require the State to idle on the sidelines until a non-citizen violates the law before the State can act. And surely the NVRA does not require the State to wait until after that critical juncture——when the vote has been cast and the harm has been fully realized——to address what it views as nothing short of “voter fraud.”

“By creating two distinct subsections, Congress meant to differentiate the removal of once eligiblevoters from those who were never eligible in the first instance. Finally, subsection (b) is consistent with Congress’ finding that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote is a fundamental right” and one of the purposes of the NVRA is “to ensure that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.” § 1973gg(a)(1), (b)(4) (emphasis added).”

“It must follow that subsection (b) was meant to apply to programs aimed at removing those voters whose status as registered voters was void ab initio. See also United States v. Florida, 2012 WL 2457506, at *4 (holding that pursuant to subsection (b), and in regard to “non-citizens, the state’s duty is to maintain an accurate voting list. . . . But the NVRA does not require a state to allow a non-citizen to vote just because the state did not catch the error more than 90 days in advance.”)”

Questionable voter registration applications turn into criminal investigation

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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has now opened a criminal investigation into the voter registration activities of Strategic Allied Consulting, hired by the Republican Party of Florida to register voters, according to media reports.  The company has posted a statement online stating the problems were the result of a contractor not following procedure.  The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Supervisors of Elections throughout the state are finding questionable forms and the Tampa Tribune reports on one county attempting a sysmtematic examination.  The New York Times is reporting on the company’s background.  This is particulary notable given all of the debate this year over the restrictions passed in HB1355 in 2011 regarding voter registration activities.