Fla. Supreme Court to hear lawsuit over provisional ballots

Associated Press  06 October 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging restrictions on using provisional ballots, which are part of a law that overhauled the state's voting system after the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Justices voted Tuesday to hold a hearing on the lawsuit Oct. 13. They could order election supervisors to make changes to state voting procedures days before the Nov. 2 presidential election.

Provisional paper ballots were created in the 2001 election overhaul law to guarantee that people who are incorrectly left off the rolls could still vote on Election Day. If officials later find the voter is registered, the ballot is counted.

A coalition of unions, including the AFL-CIO, sued over part of the law that said voters could only use provisional ballots in their home precinct. Lawyers for the unions said that violates Florida's Constitution, which requires only that voters cast their ballots in their home county.

"That qualification is overly restrictive and really has no place in a democracy," said Alma Gonzalez, special counsel for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a plaintiff in the suit.

The unions also say that the four hurricanes that have hit Florida could cause many precincts to be changed due to damages at polling places, creating further confusion.

But Ron Labasky, a lawyer who represents the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, predicted widespread turmoil if the high court ordered counties to count all provisional ballots.

Labasky and other lawyers planned to argue that provisional ballots are a protection of voter rights that wasn't in place before 2001.

"We were really not trying to restrict peoples rights in any way," said state Rep. Dudley Goodlette, a Naples Republican and one of the architects of the 2001 election reform law. "We were trying to eliminate the potential for voters to be disenfranchised."

George W. Bush won Florida by just 537 votes in 2000, which gave him the presidency after 36 days of legal wrangling and recounts. Many people alleged they were unfairly turned away from the polls even though they had registered.

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