All Eyes on Florida: The Challenges of Voting in the Sunshine State

Everyone from Florida ex-felons to former President Jimmy Carter has expressed concern about the accuracy of the upcoming 2004 election results. Many voters are wondering if state governments have repaired the problems revealed by the 2000 election.

Already, lawsuits concerning voting rights have flooded the courthouses, especially in Florida, the center of the 2000 election debacle.

Lawsuit -- Florida felon failure

One lawsuit charges that Florida’s policy of preventing ex-felons from voting is unconstitutional and disenfranchises as many as 600,000 people.

Before the 2000 election, many non-felons were purged from Florida voter registration lists because their names or social security numbers were the same as or similar to those of convicted felons. When these victims of mistaken identity tried to vote, they were turned away from the polls.

No one knows the number of non-felons that were prevented from voting in 2000, but the mistake is likely to happen again, since state officials recently sent election supervisors a list of 47,000 names of possible felons. Supervisors are expected to match the names with registered-voter lists and purge those they can verify as felons.

But local election supervisors say that they don’t have the time, money, or staff to carry out this verification. It’s likely that they will simply purge the 47,000 names from voter registration lists like they did in 2000.

Should felons vote?

Many argue that the law is unfair to voters who are legally purged as well. The law’s opponents say that felons should be allowed to vote after they have served their punishment, since they are expected to contribute to society through work and taxes.

Florida is one of seven states that prevents former felons from voting unless they go through the long bureaucratic process of having their rights restored. Many ex-felons went through that process, which often takes years to complete, but were prevented from voting anyway, the Center for Voting and Democracy (CVD) reports.

Opponents of the law contend that it disproportionately affects minority voters who tend to vote Democratic. For example, in Miami-Dade County, the 2000 felon list was 65 percent African American, though blacks make up 20 percent of the population.

Historical context

The law was intended to disenfranchise black voters, according to Florida historian Jerrell Shofner who was interviewed by the CVD.

In 1868, just after the Civil War, Florida created a new constitution in order to be readmitted to the Union. Alongside the new constitution came a new law that prevented felons from voting. Shofner explains that the law was created as a tool to prevent many newly freed blacks from civic participation. Now, over a hundred years later, it’s still preventing many blacks from voting.

The law was not enforced for many years, so a number of ex-felons who used to be able to vote have only recently lost that right. Supposedly, the law was reinstated because of a fraudulent Miami election in 1997 in which many fake absentee ballots and ex-felon ballots were counted.

This year, ex-felons and other voters who are questioned at the polls may fill out provisional ballots, which states promise to validate and count.

Lawsuit -- provisional ballots

After the 2000 election, Congress passed the Help Americans Vote Act, which requires states to offer provisional ballots to voters who do not appear on precinct lists.

However, Congress did not specify how provisional ballots should be counted. One Florida lawsuit claims that the state should count all valid provisional ballots, even if they are cast in the wrong precinct.

Twenty-four states plan to ignore precinct divisions and count all provisional ballots cast by legitimate registered voters. Specifically, these states will count a voter’s choice for president and other national offices, but discard votes for local offices if a voter went to the wrong polling place. The philosophy here is that a voter should not be punished for showing up at the wrong polling place, especially since polling sites change regularly and because voters are given misinformation frequently.

Florida, on the other hand, plans to reject any ballot cast in the wrong precinct. The philosophy here is that a ballot is invalid if it has been submitted improperly. Considering voters’ excuses and clerical errors is tricky and may not improve accuracy.

Florida’s philosophy is shared by twenty-six other states and the District of Columbia, so double check your polling place before Election Day.

What you can do

In addition to checking your precinct, you can tell everyone you know about provisional balloting. That way, no one walks away from the polls without casting a vote. Volunteer to help an elderly or disabled person get to the polls or at a polling place in your district.

What do you think?

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Update Posted on: 10/21/2004