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Advocacy Blog
Friday, April 04, 2008
"No Match, No Vote" Voter Registration Law Can Be Enforced
In Florida State Conference of the NAACP v. Browning, the 11th Circuit court of appeals has ruled that Florida can temporarily enforce a law that disqualifies any voter registration where the Social Security or driver license number on the application does not match with government databases, reversing a lower court's December injunction against the voter registration law. The Associated Press reports that the law will not be reinstated right away. "While Thursday's decision overruled the U.S. District Court's finding that the state law contradicted federal voting laws, the original suit also argued that the state law was unconstitutional. Because the lower court didn't rule on that aspect of the case, the plaintiffs could take that aspect of the complaint back to the lower court."
The Brennan Center disapproves, noting; "These sorts of common errors or inconsistencies make 'matching' unreliable, jeopardizing the status of new voters in Florida, and subjecting these voters to undue and burdensome bureaucratic requirements to climb out of a registration limbo. Moreover, some immaterial mistakes by voters become entirely insurmountable hurdles under Florida's rule: an eligible voter who happens to swap two digits of her driver's license number on the registration form will be blocked from casting a valid vote, no matter what kind of other documentation she is able to show."
Posted by Amanda Adams
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