Democrats sue GOP over voter challenges (FL)

[struggle4progress]

Source: Palm Beach Post

By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, October 31, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — ... Republicans are questioning thousands of voters in Montana and New York over their addresses, and Democrats fear similar challenges will crop up in swing states such as Florida.

The suit aims to allow supervisors to ignore "frivolous" challenges and give voters a regular ballot instead of a provisional ballot, as required by state law.

Challenged voters could unknowingly show up at the polls and find they are barred from casting a regular ballot and must vote by a provisional ballot because they are on a list of voters whose addresses, voting eligibility or other information is being questioned.

Voters cannot resolve the challenges at the polls. The provisional ballots, which studies show have a much higher chance of being tossed than regular ballots, are then assessed by the county canvassing board, which decides whether they should be counted or not ...

Read more: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/state/epaper/2008/10/31/1030electionssuit.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Law puts thousands of Florida voter IDs in question

Marc Caputo | Miami Herald • Published October 31, 2008
Comments

TALLAHASSEE — About 3,200 new voters are in the cross-hairs of Florida's new and controversial ''no-match'' law, which could force them to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if officials can't confirm their identities ...

The law .. requires local elections officials to mail letters to anyone whose registration information doesn't match the state's driver's license or Social Security databases.

Only those who registered after Sept. 8 are affected. Since then, 71,000 new Florida voters have registered through Monday, according to Florida's elections division.

Miami-Dade County has now issued about 1,200 no-match letters, Election Supervisor Lester Sola said. Broward County sent out about 84 as of last week, said the election office's public services director, Mary Cooney ...

http://www.theolympian.com/election/presidential/story/644202.html

[stillcool]

2. Nice to see

although I don't hold out much hope for a fair election in Florida

[struggle4progress]

3. Nearly a third of Florida voters have decided

Lloyd Dunkelberger
Published: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 1:01 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 1:04 p.m.

... Through Thursday, 3.4 million voters had either cast their votes at early voting sites or had filed absentee ballots _ representing 30 percent of the state’s 11.2 million voters.

Democrats continue to hold a lead among the early voters, with Democrats casting 45.5 percent of the early ballots to the Republicans’ 38.4 percent ...

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081031/BLOG8101/810310273?Title=Nearly_a_third_of_Florida_voters_have_decided

[LiberalFighter]

4. Who makes up the canvassing board in Florida?

I bet it could be all Republicans.

[msongs]

5. well TOO bad the dems waited until the last seconds instead of doing this long ago nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. voters have to make sure they are correctly registered

water tight before they get to the polls. Local Dem parties should be pursuading people to check.

[JDwho]

7. "As required by state law" is the key phrase here,..

The suit aims to allow supervisors to ignore "frivolous" challenges and give voters a regular ballot instead of a provisional ballot, as required by state law.

So, should we worry and fret? Absolutely. I agree that our documentation needs to be beyond reproach; ie. Drivers license/photo id address matches voter registration card address, etc.

Legally, this should not be a real issue. After all, a judge just ruled that the homeless may use a park bench as their address to preserve their right to vote.

However, being proactive is really the only way a provisional ballot will not be pushed on you (illegally); and the only way to ensure your vote counts!

[SharonAnn]

8. Actually, the "matching" could be a big problem for some.

Social Security and Driver's License databases are not only not perfect, they are rife with errors.

Even if there were no errors, the following could be true:

I could have have Jane Ann Doe on my Social Security record
I could have Jane Doe on my Driver's license
I could have Jane R. Doe on my Voter's Registration.

It should be obvious that I'm the same person referred to in these documents if enough other information is correct. However, if a "tight" or "perfect" match is required, I'd be purged.

[BadgerKid]

9. The GOP could push RealID

because of such variety in presenting names. Checking my documents, my names are spelled similarly.