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Judge Halts Florida Vote Suppression Measure
Jeez. Not only is Hans von Spakovsky's FEC nomination bound up in the Senate, but one of his pet causes, having states reject voter applications if the data does not match driver's license or Social Security records, has hit a snag in Florida.
Civil rights groups argued that the policy amounted to “disenfranchisement-by-bureaucracy.” Now a federal judge has agreed:
U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle on Tuesday sided with the NAACP's request for a preliminary injunction suspending Florida's 2-year-old "voter match" law while courts decide whether it violates federal laws protecting the right to vote....Lawyers for Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning contended the matching process is required to prevent voter fraud....
But in his order Tuesday, Mickle wrote that Florida's match law "stands as an obstacle" to the objectives of the federal Help America Vote Act, by making it harder to vote.
"Though it is true that prevention of voter fraud and prevention of voter disenfranchisement were both goals of HAVA, the impetus for the Act was to respond to the millions of votes that went uncounted -- not the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud," Mickle wrote.
Comments (13)
P J Evans wrote on December 19, 2007 6:37 PM:"the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud"?
I think it's more like 'hundreds of incidents', based on the reports I've seen.
MikeConwell wrote on December 19, 2007 6:43 PM:Where the F____ do they get "the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud"
I know P J Evans just asked this, but C'MON!!
JohnJ wrote on December 19, 2007 7:16 PM:Those millions that voted for Democrats MUST have been fraud! Why would anyone vote against the goopers?
JohnJ wrote on December 19, 2007 7:32 PM:The only voting fraud I saw here in Florida was when my ID was challenged by a (obviously GOP) poll worker until someone pointed out I was a registered Repug. The challenge was immediately dropped and I went in to vote a complete Democratic Party ticket.
I never changed my registration just because it screws with their numbers. I never thought it would be the only reason I was allowed to vote.
There is a LOT of corruption here in this third world state; it just isn't the voters. We're used to it.
moondancer wrote on December 19, 2007 9:37 PM:Yes, the question that has not been answered by bushco what voter fraud? Show the pattern or statistics of the voter crime this is supposed to be correcting. Why all the energy for something that doesn't exist.
R Johnston wrote on December 20, 2007 2:22 AM:If anyone has seen the youtube tapes of expert testimony from the state of Ohios hearings on the massive fraud that gave Bush his re-election, the only systematic voter crime is being perpetrated by the Republican Party.
Look for an exponentially larger attempt in 08 by the goopers, since they know they have no chance legitimately.
"the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud"?
I think it's more like 'hundreds of incidents', based on the reports I've seen.
Actually, it's more like begging the question. The registration "fraud" that happens almost always comes down to examples like college students registering at home and at school at the same time, or joke names at fake addresses that happen at all signature drives. Of course, 1) these aren't the voters being targeted for purging from the rolls, and 2) there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that actual voting fraud--i.e. voting twice, or voting by ineligible people--is taking place on any significant scale as a result of these "fraudulent" registrations. It's a vanishingly small percentage of fraudulent registrations that result in fraudulent votes.
That's the crux of the whole modern voting suppression hoax: the fact that bad registrations rarely if ever lead to fraudulent votes. The Republicans know this is true, but they lie and proclaim the need to closely weed out erroneous or duplicate registrations in order to stop vote fraud. Of course they "accidentally" weed out legitimate registrations of disproportionately Democratic voters at the same tame, their only genuinely intended consequence.
R Johnston wrote on December 20, 2007 2:23 AM:"the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud"?
I think it's more like 'hundreds of incidents', based on the reports I've seen.
Actually, it's more like begging the question. The registration "fraud" that happens almost always comes down to examples like college students registering at home and at school at the same time, or joke names at fake addresses that happen at all signature drives. Of course, 1) these aren't the voters being targeted for purging from the rolls, and 2) there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that actual voting fraud--i.e. voting twice, or voting by ineligible people--is taking place on any significant scale as a result of these "fraudulent" registrations. It's a vanishingly small percentage of fraudulent registrations that result in fraudulent votes.
That's the crux of the whole modern voting suppression hoax: the fact that bad registrations rarely if ever lead to fraudulent votes. The Republicans know this is true, but they lie and proclaim the need to closely weed out erroneous or duplicate registrations in order to stop vote fraud. Of course they "accidentally" weed out legitimate registrations of disproportionately Democratic voters at the same tame, their only genuinely intended consequence.
R Johnston wrote on December 20, 2007 2:23 AM:"the millions of incidents of voter registration fraud"?
I think it's more like 'hundreds of incidents', based on the reports I've seen.
Actually, it's more like begging the question. The registration "fraud" that happens almost always comes down to examples like college students registering at home and at school at the same time, or joke names at fake addresses that happen at all signature drives. Of course, 1) these aren't the voters being targeted for purging from the rolls, and 2) there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that actual voting fraud--i.e. voting twice, or voting by ineligible people--is taking place on any significant scale as a result of these "fraudulent" registrations. It's a vanishingly small percentage of fraudulent registrations that result in fraudulent votes.
That's the crux of the whole modern voting suppression hoax: the fact that bad registrations rarely if ever lead to fraudulent votes. The Republicans know this is true, but they lie and proclaim the need to closely weed out erroneous or duplicate registrations in order to stop vote fraud. Of course they "accidentally" weed out legitimate registrations of disproportionately Democratic voters at the same tame, their only genuinely intended consequence.
kj* wrote on December 20, 2007 2:28 AM:Tsk, tsk...he knows there are NOT millions and should have been much more clear.
rxbusa wrote on December 20, 2007 5:21 AM:the only actual example I've heard of in Florida of voter registration fraud was Ann Coulter registering at an address where she didn't live, and her case was dismissed because the statute of limitations expired.
Perhaps judges are not entirely beyond snark.
Tom wrote on December 20, 2007 6:53 AM:Is it me or does this criminal look like somebody who if there wasn't a reichwing criminally organized element in the republican party to steal as much as they can and trample on the US constitution in the process, if that cabal didn't exist, he'd be a loser with a wife and two kids selling shoes in Chicago?
Johann wrote on December 20, 2007 9:30 AM:Tom on December 20, 2007 6:53 AM: It is more likely that he would be selling snake oil to the true believers.
will o dwisp wrote on December 20, 2007 9:41 AM:Ha ha! Take that!
I have a theory that bullies will be successful at brazenly wrong tactics until someone comes up with a effeciently descriptive term for them -"disenfranchisement-by-bureaucracy" is a term we can now use for Spakovskyesque voter suppression techniques. In that we can lump "caging" -a term people easliy forget the definition of and therefore likely to become victims of again.