Presidential elections set to be held in November this year have brought about many controversies already, one of the more recent ones is the change instituted in Florida early voting pattern. A 2011 Florida law made a lot of amendments in the election pattern, one of the change was pertaining to Early voting. It was reduced from 12 days to 8 days, straight (the summary of the law can be accessed on Florida Senate website at: http://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2011/html/1355EE).
Early voting basically refers to the act of voting prior to the pre-fixed voting day at a place deemed fit by the Supervisor of Elections. The manner and equipment for casting the ballot remain the same in early voting as well (for more details on early voting log on tohttp://election.dos.state.fl.us/voting/early.shtml). The elections conducted in January and August were subject to the 2011 law and hence the early voting period was reduced to 8 days while the 96 hours bracket was not violated. (Primary elections early voting pattern can be seen at:http://election.dos.state.fl.us/pdf/Early_Voting_Sites_Primary_2012.pdf). These changes were instantly reprimanded by the Democrats and several voting rights groups for being discriminatory towards the minorities. Some churches organized voting drives called “souls to the polls” so as to enable more number of African-Americans to cast votes after Sunday prayers.
As per Section-5 of the Voting Rights Act, any change in the voting procedure has to attain an approval from either the Department of Justice or a federal Court. And the places which need to follow this law have been notified in section 4 of the same Act mainly due to a history of discrimination in these areas. Hence, these amendments of 2011 were not effective in Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe. Any changes in voting procedures in these counties must be pre-cleared by either the Department of Justice or a federal court.
The federal court with its seat at Washington, D.C. held on Thursday (16th August 2012) that the Florida early voting law is against the minority and hence court accent could not be given. On being asked about this issue, Gov. Scott’s spokesperson Brian Burgess said “There is a path to getting something done before Election Day… We are evaluating options and we are going to find a solution that we believe will satisfy the court.”
On the question of persisting confusion about the election method Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton clarified that “If nothing changes we will now have two sets of voting rules in Florida on Election Day”. On the other hand this proposal was opposed by Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, saying “This dual election system is illegal and will lead to confusion and chaos in November.”
Now, it is up to the Higher Courts to decide the destiny of November elections in Florida.