By Regan McCarthy
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-980848.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Florida's Secretary of State has asked the Federal courts to grant pre clearance to four aspects of the state's new elections law. The remaining pieces of the law will await review from the Department of Justice. The secretary worries political pressures will affect the DOJ and says the shift is the best way to ensure a fair outcome. But Regan McCarthy reports some worry it just means a longer wait for an answer.
Florida is one of several states required to submit all elections laws for review with either a Federal court or the Department of Justice. It's a rule that's been in place since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act says states that had been found using discriminatory voting practices would be subject to federal oversight.
The review is supposed to ensure any new voting laws passed will be fair. So when the legislature voted to pass a new state law Secretary of State Kurt Browning sent the measure to the Department of Justice for review. But after four provisions in particular received a lot of attention with groups including the League of Women Voters and the N-double-A-C-P asking the Department of Justice to withhold their clearance Browning has asked the Federal Court system to review four aspects of the law instead. He says he worried about the fairness of the law otherwise.
"You're not going to get a fair and impartial hearing. I just don't believe that. And so I made the decision it was not Governor Scott's decision. He did not direct me to do this. This was my decision. To pull those four sections from the justice pre-clearance process and take them to the Federal Courts."
Browning says the courts are more "insulated" from political pressures. And he says using the Federal court system to pre-clear one aspect of the law and the DOJ to pre-clear another has been done before. In this case, the four provisions Browning has asked the courts to take up include a rule that makes it more difficult for 3rd parties to register voters, a measure cutting down on the number of early voting days, a rule to prohibit voters from updating their names and addresses at the polls and a provision putting more stringent rules in place for public ballot initiatives. The Executive Director of The League of Women Voters of Florida Jessica Lowe-Minor, says the League doesn't think it's a coincidence that the four most contentious aspects of the bill are the ones Browning has asked the courts to review.
"And the league thinks that the fact that they withdrew those four sections, but allowed the other sections to move forward through the Department of Justice for preclearance means that the state is very insecure about those sections and that those sections and that the state might thin that those sections do violate the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 otherwise why not allow those sections to move forward through the Department of Justice and allow the DOJ to pre-clear them?"
Lowe-Minor says the league is most directly affected by the 3rd party registration law. Right now, she says the league has stopped signing up voters, which is why she says she's so frustrated. A decision on the law was originally expected from the Department of Justice by August 8th.
"Now by withdrawing those sections we're going to see a Federal Court Case that could take weeks, months to get on to the docket and then who knows how long it will take for there to be an ultimate decision and that's all time when Florida voters are left in limbo as to whether or not they'll be able to get registered, what the early voting situation is going to be in Florida in the 2012 election".
Secretary Browning says he doesn't think the courts will really take much longer to make a decision than the DOJ. The Department is given 60 days from the time they receive the information to make a ruling, but Browning says since the department has asked for more information they have to option of resetting the 60 day clock--meaning that an outcome expected in early August could be pushed back by months.
Whatever the outcome, voters and organizations like the league aren't the only ones who will be affected. Candidates will also see new challenges. Nancy Argenziano, a former state Republican Lawmaker wants to run for congress as a Democrat. A provision in the new law stops her . Republican Representative Dennis Baxley of Ocala sponsored the elections law in the House. He says any candidate switching parties has to do that at least a year before the qualifying deadline. He says the measure is intended to protect voters.
"If you are carrying, raising funds, garnering support under a certain label or a brand or a party that if you are going to take that somewhere else, the people have a period of time to assess that."
Argenziano says that's 17 months before the election. The rule before the law change was set at just six months. Argenziano says she thinks the rule change was kept relatively quiet. She says by the time the law passed there was little time left to re-register and she says she doesn't think that was an accident.
"The reasons the Republicans did this should be of great interest to the Democratic Party and I hope they pursue it because a lot of people have written me to say they're disappointed that the Democratic party doesn't fight back enough and I hope they do."
Argenziano says she's prepared to fight it in any way she can. And in the mean time she says she's not letting it stop her. She'd like to run as a Democrat, but if she can't she says she'll run as an independent and either way she says she intends to win.
The elections law has already been applied to 62 of the states counties. If the law receives pre-clearance it will be applied to the states 5 remaining counties. If the law does not receive pre-clearance Browning says history indicates it will likely be completely repealed by the legislature. The pre-clearance decision evaluates only the law's possibility of discrimination, not the law's constitutionality.