This post has been updated.
Hours after Florida Democrats filed suit in federal court over Gov. Rick Scott’s refusal to issue an executive order extending the amount of time available to vote early, Miami-Dade County reopened its polls to Sunday voters. Now, four other counties have followed suit.
The Florida Democratic Party’s executive director, Scott Arceneaux, released a statement just before 1 p.m. Sunday, saying:
“If you live in one of five Florida counties – Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Orange or Pinellas – you can vote today. Voters can go to their county Supervisor of Election office to cast their absentee ballot in person. Additionally, voters in Orange County can early vote this afternoon in Winter Park at the Winter Park Library (460 E. New England Ave., across from Rollins College); to make up for the four hours that location was closed yesterday, Floridians can vote in Winter Park today between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET. If you are in line by 5 p.m., you can vote.
We encourage registered voters in these counties to cast their ballots today. With unprecedented turnout in South Florida, it is still our hope that the court will extend the early voting hours so that every eligible voter has a chance to vote.”
In addition, voters statewide can request and cast absentee ballots on Monday, according to the Miami-Herald, which notes that the five counties that reopened on Sunday are home to 1.6 million registered Democrats, or about a third of the state’s total.
Broward County, which raised alarms when vote totals from the first day of early voting were significantly revised, and where a backlog of absentee ballots has left thousands without their ballots, did not follow suit.
The Republican-dominated state legislature cut the early vote period down from 14 days in a bill signed in 2010 by Gov. Rick Scott. That forced African-American churches to reschedule “souls to the polls” for last weekend, which resulted in record turnout on the first two days of early voting. But today, on what would have been “souls to the polls,” elections offices are closed by law, statewide.
The decision, first made by Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Penelope “Penny” Townsley, means that voters in the county have had that voting restored, at least for four hours. Townsley’s move was not in response to the lawsuit, but rather acted under her authority to accept absentee ballots on the Sunday before Election Day. Under her order, voters will be able to obtain an absentee ballot at the elections office, or turn in their absentee ballots, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., effectively restoring early voting. Voters can also pick up an absentee ballot, take it home to fill out, and return it to the elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The Miami-Dade Elections office issued the following directive on Sunday:
While state law does not permit Early Voting today, we are permitted to provide and accept absentee ballots. In honor of the Early Voting hours offered on the last Sunday in 2008, voters can go to the Elections Department in Doral to vote by absentee ballot from 1pm-5pm. Similar to the practice in Early Voting and on Election Day, any voter in line at 5pm will be allowed to vote.
Floridians have faced long lines, some as long as eight hours, to vote, and the wait times have been especially long in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, both Democratic strongholds, where large numbers of African-Americans are lining up to take advantage of the eight-day early voting period.
Scott had refused to issue an executive order as his predecessor, Republican governor, and now Independent (and Barack Obama supporter) Charlie Crist, did in 2008. Scott’s refusal prompted the Florida Democratic Party to file a federal lawsuit in the wee hours of Sunday morning, a day after voting stretched on well past 11 p.m. in some early voting locations. In Miami-Dade, the last voter finished casting their ballot at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning. Under Florida law, anyone in line by the 7 p.m. poll closing time must be allowed to vote.
“Voting is a fundamental right, and we all have an interest in assuring that all Americans have effective opportunities to vote. Florida’s Republican state legislature has already reduced the number of days to early vote by six days. Because of Gov. Scott’s refusal to follow precedent and extend early voting hours in the face of unprecedented voter turnout in South Florida, we are requesting in federal court that more Floridians have a meaningful chance to early vote,” the Florida Democratic Party said in a statement released Sunday.
The Republican Party of Florida has said Democrats are complaining about early voting hours because “they are losing.” However, numbers released by the Florida Democratic Party indicate that Democrats have cast 42 percent of the early ballots as of Saturday, to Republicans’ 41 percent. And with more than 4 million absentee ballots cast, Democrats lead Republicans in early voting by 104,000 votes.
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.”