Florida Gearing Up for 2008 Election Mayhem

By Tim Grubbs
August 13, 2008
Law, Politics

Special interest groups such as Florida’s League of Women Voters and AFL-CIO chapter were recently dealt a heavy blow in their efforts to find new and creative ways in which to skew and blur election results for the 2008 election cycle. According to a press release from Florida’s Department of State, on August 6, 2008, Federal Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in Miami upheld a Florida law which had been challenged by the League of Women Voters and AFL-CIO. These groups challenged that the law’s requirement that voter registration applications collected by such groups be submitted within ten days of collection and by applicable registration deadlines was unconstitutional.

The challenge was brought after fines were imposed on the groups following the 2004 election cycle in which the groups failed to submit collected voter registration applications on time, by associated deadlines, or in some cases failed to submit them altogether. The decision reinforces the strict regulation of groups who organize to act as voter registration agents by requiring them to perform these activities in an ethical manner, or face stiff civil penalties and possible criminal penalties.

Florida’s Secretary of State, Kurt S. Browning said the law will be implemented in the near future, as soon as implementing rules from the courts are in place. According to Browning,

Every voter registration applicant who completes an application and entrusts it to somebody else should fully expect that the application will promptly reach election officials so that the applicant may be registered and eligible to vote. This law does just that and protects the right to vote of all Floridians.