Group of unions sues state over provisional ballot law

Citing fears of disenfranchisement, several unions asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out a law requiring provisional ballots be cast in the correct precinct.

BY GARY FINEOUT in the Miami Herald   18 August 2004

TALLAHASSEE - In yet another election-year skirmish over voting, several unions went to Florida's highest court on Tuesday and asked it to strike down a law that requires people who use provisional ballots to cast them in the right precinct.

The AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union called on the court to consider in time for the November elections whether state laws governing provisional ballots violate the state Constitution.

The lawsuit, filed against Secretary of State Glenda Hood as well as local election officials in Leon County, asks the court to order state officials to tell elections supervisors that all provisional ballots cast within a county should be counted on Election Day.

A provisional ballot is given to a voter whose name doesn't appear on voting rolls but who insists he is legally registered to vote. The ballots were authorized by state legislators in 2001 as a response to complaints that many people were wrongfully turned away by poll workers during the 2000 presidential election.

But despite the strong objections of some lawmakers, such as Rep. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, legislators mandated that the provisional ballots won't count unless the voter casts his ballot in the right precinct.

Union attorneys contend that many voters may not realize that precinct lines have changed since 2000 due to redistricting in 2002. They also point out that some counties have added precincts and that some newly registered voters may not get new voter ID cards in time for the upcoming elections.

''The law creates a statutory scheme that will once again disenfranchise voters,'' said Alma Gonzalez, an attorney representing AFSCME.

Rep. Dudley Goodlette, a Naples Republican and one of the leading architects of the state's election reform bill passed in 2001, defended the wording of the law. He said the restrictions were done at the request of election supervisors and that the changes allow more people to vote than what was in place four years ago.

''It expanded rights; it didn't constrain rights,'' Goodlette said.

The unions undertook an unusual legal strategy in asking for a judgment directly from the Supreme Court and bypassing a trial court.

The lawsuit doesn't list anyone directly affected by the law, although Gonzalez said her organization has found people whose provisional ballots were thrown out in 2002 because they voted in the wrong precinct.

Civil court cases usually require that those filing the lawsuit show how they have been harmed