Teacher: No way to comply with new Fla. voting law

[The Straight Story]

Teacher: No way to comply with new Fla. voting law
Teacher could face fine of up to $1,000


A teacher who may become the first person fined for violating Florida's new Republican-sponsored election law says there's no way she could have complied with a provision on voter registration drives even if she had known about it.

Dawn Quarles faces a potential $1,000 fine for allegedly turning in her students' voter registration applications more than 48 hours after they were signed. The old deadline had been 10 days.

"That's ridiculous, that's crazy," Quarles said in a telephone interview Monday night. "I don't know about it, so how can I abide by it?"

Quarles teaches government at Pace High School in the western Florida Panhandle, which is solid GOP territory.

She acknowledged erring in the past but said this year she made sure to get her students' applications turned in within 10 days, not realizing the time limit had been shortened.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Teacher-No-way-to-comply-with-new-Fla-voting-law/-/1637132/4103892/-/laebg2z/-/index.html

[gratuitous]

1. Republicans: The party of disenfranchisement

The fewer meddling citizens who vote, the better the GOP likes it.

[murielm99]

2. That would be hard to comply with anywhere.

I am a deputy registrar. If I can carry the applications over to the courthouse during business hours, I do that. Often, I have to mail them. It can take more than forty-eight hours for them to get there. That would be no one's fault!

[valerief]

3. The GOP's goal is to do away with any semblance of voting--except at .01%er board meetings. nt

[msongs]

4. and democrats are complicit along with the DOJ,,,,,they snooze and we lose nt

[valerief]

6. They are definitely complicit. It's obvious. nt

[sammytko]

5. Wouldn't they check the date they were mailed via the post mark?

Compare that to the date signed.

And then why not date them say the day you think they might make it to the register? How are they going to check that? LOL!!

[DirkGently]

7. There's another Florida civics teacher facing fines as well.

Cicciarelli was motivated to register students because volunteers helped her first register when she was a student at Florida State University. League of Women Voters volunteers helped her “navigate a process that seemed a little intimidating to a teenager who’d never voted.” Ironically, fear of violating the state’s new rules have prompted the League of Women Voters to suspend their registration efforts in Florida.

“I just want them to be participating in our democracy,” Ciccarelli says of her students. “The more participation we have, the stronger our democracy will be.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/10/25/352081/under-new-gop-law-florida-teacher-faces-huge-fines-for-the-crime-of-registering-students-to-vote/

Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for an investigation as whether the new Republican-backed changes might possibly be an attempt to illegally disenfranchise voters.

Hmmm.