Ruling Curbs Where Floridians Can Vote

In what activists have called a setback for low-income Floridians, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that people who cast a provisional ballot at the wrong precinct here are not entitled to have their votes counted.

The unanimous court decision, issued in the state capital of Tallahassee, rejected an argument by labor unions that the voting rule wrongly disenfranchises voters. They said many poor Floridians, their lives uprooted by a series of late-summer hurricanes, might now be precluded from voting.

Monday’s ruling, which activists say could prove critical in a close election, came as partisan battles over ballot rules and voter registration heightened in battleground states nationwide. In Ohio last week, a federal judge ordered the state’s Republican secretary of state to count so-called provisional ballots filed in the wrong precincts.

Activists say the two seemingly contrary rulings are among the many reasons the federal government should set nationwide standards for voting procedures.

Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican, has faced numerous procedural lawsuits over the casting of ballots. The atmosphere here is particularly divisive after claims in 2000 that Hood’s Republican predecessor in the secretary of state’s office, Katherine Harris, helped throw the election in favor of George W. Bush, the older brother of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The secretary of state’s office said Monday that the court’s decision merely upheld Florida law. “Precinct-based voting laws have been on the books in Florida for over 100 years,” said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Hood’s office.

“This decision just enforces Florida law that says provisional ballots have to be cast in a voter’s home precinct,” she said. “That’s the law.”

Activists on Monday said the ballot law unconstitutionally disenfranchised voters who did not know their polling place. They argued that many people have new polling places because of redistricting or might have been displaced by a hurricane.

“This ruling puts Florida in a deja-vu all over again, going back to the high jinks of 2000,” said Alma Gonzalez, special counsel to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the plaintiffs which sued the state over the provisional ballot issue. “A lot of poor people in this state have endured four hurricanes. And now the state is going to put additional roadblocks in their way when it comes to voting.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling fell on the side of the secretary of state’s office. In the past, Hood has said the law clearly states that provisional ballots must be counted only if the person was entitled to vote “at the precinct,” and that the constitution gives the Legislature the authority to dictate voting rules.

Provisional ballots are meant to ensure that people are not disenfranchised because of administrative errors or because they moved.

Under Florida law, if voters show up at a polling place but officials there have no record they are registered, they are given provisional ballots. Those ballots are then held until officials determine whether the persons were entitled to vote at that precinct and had not already voted.

If they should have been allowed to vote at that precinct, the ballots count; if not, they are thrown out. Activists wanted all provisional ballots to be counted even if the voter did not show up at their correct precinct.

Gonzalez said that activists had no plans to take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, but instead urged Florida voters to vote early to avoid a last-minute controversy over uncounted provisional ballots.

Voters who faced filing a provisional ballot because their name did not show up on their precinct’s rolls also had the right to demand that officials tell them their correct precinct.

“This was the court of last resort in Florida,” she said. “We’re asking voters to go to the polls and throw out the state legislators who put this unjust law into action.”

The ruling came as thousands of Floridians began casting early ballots. The process is intended to shorten lines on election day, but proved so popular Monday that some voters had to wait in line for more than an hour.