Courtenay Strickland, Director of Public Policy, ACLU of Florida (305) 457-5422 cell or

Brad Ashwell, Legislative Advocate, Florida Public Interest Research Group, (850) 294-

1008 cell or brad@floridapirg.org

called upon Florida Speaker of the House Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff

Atwater to step up to their responsibility and prevent two voter suppression bills from

reaching the floor of the state legislature's chambers. The groups said that the antivoter

legislation would spur lawsuits, trigger federal intervention and cause Florida to

backslide toward the election debacle of 2000.

Among the diverse array of local, state and national groups opposing the legislation

are the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida State Conference NAACP, AARP,

Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, Inc., Florida Public Interest Research

Group (PIRG), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, Democracía USA,

Florida AFL-CIO, Florida Council of the Blind, Common Cause, Florida Immigrant

Coalition, Advancement Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,

Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, Florida Fair Elections Coalition, Florida Voters

Coalition, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, Broward Election Reform Coalition, SEIU

Florida, Equality Florida, Florida National Organization for Women, Central Florida

Teamsters Union, Handicapped Adults of Volusia County (HAVOC), One Nation Volusia

and Business and Professional Women of Florida.

“Instead of making it easier for citizens to register and vote, this legislation creates

more barriers to the voting process and limits citizens' involvement in elections and

government. Our constitutional rights are being trampled on by the imposition of

crippling fines and burdensome reporting requirements on third party voter

registration groups,” said Marilynn Wills, President of League of Women Voters of

Florida.

“The way the public comment period and debate on these bills was shut down is

illustrative of exactly what this legislation is designed to do – suppress citizen

participation in our democratic process,” added Rich Templin, Communications

Director for the Florida AFL-CIO.

Several of the groups speaking out today mobilized against Senator Alex Diaz de la

Portilla's strike-all committee amendment to Senate Bill 956, which was presented at

unfortunately most were limited to only one minute of testimony each. The next

morning, in a House Council meeting, public comment was cut off entirely and

representatives themselves had barely more than five minutes to debate the 81-page

bill. Despite the shameful rejection of input from the public and dearth of thoughtful

consideration by the legislators, both the Senate Committee and the House Council

passed the legislation.

In addition to expressing concerns about the lack of opportunity for public input on

the legislation, the groups objected to the bills' content.

“Too many of our citizens have already suffered the loss of their vote – their voice –

at the polls due to Florida's past electoral problems,” said Adora Obi Nweze, President

of the Florida State Conference NAACP. “If passed, this legislation would make it

more difficult for people to register to vote, vote on a regular (not provisional) ballot

on Election Day, obtain nonpartisan voting rights information at the polls, and engage

in other meaningful forms of civic participation such as through petition drives and

registering through third-party voter registration drives. Civic participation is the

backbone of our democratic process. Why would we want to curtail that?” Nweze

added.

Claims by politicians that there is a need to further restrict the types of IDs that are

accepted for voter registration and at the polls to prevent fraud remain

unsubstantiated, and the end result will be that more and more Floridians will be left

out of the democratic process.

Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida cautioned, “Spurious

allegations of voter fraud – in the absence of any evidence to support the allegations –

cannot be used to further restrict voters' rights. If this legislation should pass, we will

be taking these egregious violations of Floridians' rights to Attorney General Holder

and the Department of Justice, and if needed, to the courts. The days of the Justice

Department Voting Rights Division's outright hostility to our most vulnerable voters

are over.”

The groups also objected to a four-year extension on making accessible marksense

(paper) ballots available to Florida voters who have disabilities.

Said Barry Shalinsky, Director of the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access

(PAVA) Program of the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, Inc., “There is

no justification for relegating voters with disabilities to four more years of touch

screen voting machines that have been deemed too untrustworthy for use by the rest

of Florida's voters. Voters with disabilities should not have to endure four more years

of second-class voting.”

Several provisions of the legislation will also spur litigation – further adding to the

fiscal impact of the voter suppression legislation. The ACLU has already won part of

the battle to stem incursions on voting rights in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Fort

Myers leading up to last year's primary election. The court enjoined enforcement of

the 100-foot “no-solicitation” zone against groups gathering petition signatures from

voters exiting the polling. The state has appealed this decision. “The ACLU of Florida is

prepared to take this fight to court,” said Muslima Lewis, Senior Attorney and Director

of the ACLU of Florida's Voting Rights and Racial Justice Projects.

In addition, the State is still dealing with the effects of prior litigation concerning third3

party voter registration rules that the League of Women Voters of Florida, along with

Florida AFL-CIO, SEIU Florida and AFSCME, challenged in a lawsuit filed in 2006. A

federal court in Miami blocked enforcement of the previous law restricting third-party

voter registration, concluding that that law was unconstitutional. The bill currently

under consideration is significantly more restrictive, and if enacted, would likely

prompt yet another lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court's decision is still pending concerning Sarasota

voters' passage of a local initiative requiring paper ballots. The legislation's provision

granting additional powers to the Secretary of State could prevent voters from making

similar decisions about their local voting process.

"Don't be fooled by minor amendments that may be offered to this dangerous bill,”

said Kindra Muntz of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections. “Its primary purpose is

to give all power over elections to the Secretary of State. The ramifications of such

concentrated power will be devastating."

“Here we go again,” added Brad Ashwell, Legislative Advocate for Florida PIRG, in

summing up the legislative proposal. “Some of our elected officials are determined to

squelch civic participation in our state. It's time for our Legislature's leadership to say

‘not this time' and instead choose to keep our state on the right track – the track that

preserves our democratic process.”

The proposed changes to Florida's voting and elections laws would:

Expand the “no-solicitation zone,” creating a constantly shifting zone that would be

impossible to enforce and further restricts voters' ability to receive important

nonpartisan voting rights information at the polling place;

Further limits acceptable IDs, without proposing acceptable alternatives, preventing

eligible citizens from registering to vote, and properly registered voters from

exercising their right to vote;

Force more voters to vote by provisional ballots, which have a higher rate of

rejection;

Increase the frequency of “list maintenance programs” causing more validly

registered voters to be removed from the voter rolls;

Extend the deadline for making accessible paper (marksense) ballots available for

disabled Floridians, relegating voters with disabilities to four additional years of

voting on second class touch screen voting systems;

Impose unnecessary and onerous restrictions on third-party voter registration

groups. This would have the direct effect of decreasing electoral participation by

Floridians who are significantly more likely to register through these drives,

especially eligible Black and Latino voters; and

Impose unnecessary and onerous restrictions on groups that collect citizen petitions

for ballot measures, making it harder for regular citizens – as compared to wellfinanced

corporate interests – to get measures on the ballot.

Pre-empt some powers granted to county supervisors of elections in favor of

concentrating greater power in the hands of the Secretary of State.