Federal judge rejects incomplete voter registration forms

This strikes me as a new kind of "literacy test" - obviously if the government makes registration forms more complicated, more forms will be rejected for some minor error. If a registration form is defective, the voters should be notified and given the opportunity to correct the error.

Posted on Wed, Oct. 27, 2004  
Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10021856.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Wed, Oct. 27, 2004
Ruling blocks hopeful voters
Thousands of Floridians won't be able to vote in five urban counties because they failed to complete their voter registration applications, a Miami federal judge said.
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@herald.com

A Miami federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit that sought to allow thousands of Floridians to vote in next week's general election, saying county and state officials didn't have to process incomplete voter registration applications.

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled against three prospective voters who sued Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and election supervisors in Duval, Orange, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

King said the voter applicants -- one from Miami-Dade and the other two from Duval -- could sue only their own county election supervisor, not the secretary of state or other county supervisors.

More important, King said Miami-Dade and Duval election supervisors acted legally when they deemed their voter applications incomplete by the Oct. 4 registration deadline.

King said the Miami-Dade plaintiff, Emma Diaz, a new U.S. citizen who failed to check off the voter registration box saying she was not mentally incapacitated to vote, ''created her own injury'' by not correcting the mistake by that deadline.

''I feel like crying,'' said Diaz, 23, of Miami Beach, whose application was received by the Miami-Dade election supervisor on Sept. 23. ``I thought I was at least going to get a chance, but no. I feel pretty offended because the ruling [said] that I caused this injury upon myself.

The AP version is significantly different from the Miami Herald.

Fla. Will Reject Incomplete Voter Forms

By CATHERINE WILSON
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI -- Florida election officials will not be required to process incomplete voter registration forms for the presidential election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King said the three prospective voters for whom the lawsuit was filed did not have the legal standing to pursue the case, which was backed by the AFL-CIO.

But he gave the union a chance to file a new version of the lawsuit next month with people who meet the standard.

That leaves the AFL-CIO and the Advancement Project, a social action group, on the losing side of an attempt to force election officials to accept incomplete registration forms before the Nov. 2 election.

The forms were from people who signed to affirm their eligibility, but failed to provide an identification number, such as from a driver's license or a Social Security card, or check boxes affirming their citizenship, mental capacity and felony status.

Applicants filling out registration cards are required to sign a form, affirming that they meet eligibility requirements, but applicants must also check separate boxes on the form.

Attorneys with the Washington-based Advancement Project said the plaintiffs would appeal by Friday. The group argued that the rejections disqualified more than 14,000 people across the state, with a disparate effect on minorities. Nearly 45 percent of the challenged forms in one county, Duval, came from blacks.

"Our goal is still to see if we can get relief for our clients before Election Day," said Sheila Thomas, an Advancement Project attorney.