League of Women Voters accuses legislature of voter suppression

TAMPA - After 70 years the non partisan League of Women Voters is getting out of the business of registering voters in Florida. They claim a law passed by the 2011 legislature is a blatant attempt to suppress voting and they want no part of the new rules.

"It is an attempt to fix a problem that doesn't exist. We do not have voter fraud in Florida" claims Hillsborough League of Women Voters President Mickey Castor who notes that there have been only three arrests for voter fraud in Florida since 2008.

The new rules that apply to any third party voter registration effort requires volunteers to register with the Elections Division and to return each filled out registration card to the their local supervisor of elections office within 48 hours or face fines up to $1,000 dollars. Under the current law, they have ten days.

"So the state board said we could not put our volunteers at risk" said Castor.

Legislator Seth McKeel, a backer of the law says The League is overreacting and the change is necessary to maintain the integrity of the voter registration system.

"Even the mere allegation that there might be room for fraud to me seems reasonable that the legislature ought to make sure that it's a tight process" said McKeel.

Republican lawmaker Rachel Burgin of Riverview, who also voted for the new law says the tighter deadline makes sense.

"Sometimes people will have big voter drives, they're all volunteers which is a good thing, but sometimes they forget to submit (registration forms) or they get lost" said Burgin.

House Bill 1355 which awaits Governor Scott's signature also shortens early voting from ten days to five and makes it more difficult to cast a ballot if your address has changed since the last election.

Burgin and McKeel dismiss the claim that these measures are an effort on the part of Republicans to suppress the vote of students, minorities and others who may lean Democratic. Castor believes Democracy itself is the victim of this new law.

"We think it bolsters democracy to encourage it's citizens to participate in government and the first step is to register".