Florida Dems sue to keep early voting open; Sunday voting resumes in 5 counties
POLITICS - Florida Democrats filed suit in federal court Saturday over Gov. Rick Scott's refusal to issue an executive order extending the amount of time available to vote early.
The Miami Herald provided further details about the suit Sunday:
The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court, argues that an emergency judge’s order is necessary to “extend voting opportunities” before Tuesday, including allowing voters to cast absentee ballots in person at supervisor of elections’ offices — something Miami-Dade and Broward already allow. Voters can turn in their ballots through 7 p.m. Tuesday.
… It’s unclear exactly what more a court could do at this point. The lawsuit does not ask the court to order all early-voting sites to re-open.
According to the lawsuit, “inadequate polling facilities” in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties led to lines in some cases between six and seven hours long — longer than elsewhere in the state, the lawsuit says.
“The extraordinarily long lines deterred or prevented voters from waiting to vote. Some voters left the polling sites upon learning of the expected wait, and others refused to line up altogether,” the lawsuit says. “These long lines and extreme delays unduly and unjustifiably burdened the right to vote.”
The lawsuit cites requests made to Gov. Rick Scott to extend voting hours by executive authority. Scott said Thursday night he would not extend the hours, following requests from Democrats and Democratic-leaning groups.
On Friday, Monroe County Elections Supervisor Harry Sawyer Jr., a Republican, sent the governor a letter asking for more hours. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner responded that the reports he was receiving from elections supervisors across the state were positive about early voting.
MIAMI – With little notice, early voting has been extended for four hours at the Doral Department of Elections office. The move to limit the extended early voting hours to just the Doral Department of Elections office will benefit voters of who live in close proximity and disenfranchise voters around the county. In addition, this decision limits the ability of voters who do not live close to Doral or have access to public transportation to participate in today’s early vote.Adding to the appearance of partisan game playing, callers to the main phone number at the Miami Dade Division of Elections hear a voice mail declaring the office closed for the day.
Garcia’s campaign spokesman Jeffrey Garcia added: “This is a blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters and a perversion of the voting process. If today’s voting changes the outcome of any partisan race, there are grounds for challenging the legitimacy of the vote. If this was not intended to be a partisan tactic, we urge the Supervisor of Elections to extend early voting opportunities throughout the county.”
The campaign also pointed out that some cities are between 16 and as much as 31 miles away from the Doral location.
President Obama held a rally in Hollywood, Florida Sunday, and Michelle Obama will campaign in Orlando Monday.
UPDATE 2:50 p.m.: The Miami-Dade Elections office is facing a backlash Sunday evening after the lone voting location was quickly overrun by would-be voters, and because the location is far from neighborhoods where Democrats are most likely to live. From the Miami Herald:
The department had opened its Doral headquarters from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. as a work-around to an early-voting crackdown law.
But by 2 p.m., around 180 voters had showed up, and department spokeswoman Christina White said the office would not be able to accommodate any more voters who showed up. Additional voters would be turned away, she said.
“We had the best of intentions to provide this service today,” she said. “We just can’t accommodate it to the degree that we would like to.”
Shortly after, however, the department locked its doors and shut down the operation without explanation. The people in line did not get to vote.
“Let us vote!” they shouted.
The department had only one ballot-printing machine, five voting booths and two staffers to assist voters Sunday.
Karen Andre, who heads the Florida office for Obama’s Organizing for America field campaign, called the situation “unacceptable,” and said the organization’s attorneys would be “monitoring the situation.”
