League of Women Voters may stop registrations

After 72 years of registering Floridians to vote, the League of Women Voters has vowed to abandon those efforts if Gov. Rick Scott signs new rules for voter registration.

If he does enact them, League leaders said, they may also take the state to court.

A respected nonpartisan political organization that has been around nationally for 91 years, the League announced Monday that it will stop registering voters in Florida if Scott signs House Bill 1355. The mammoth elections bill, among other things, would require third-party registration groups to register with the state and fine them $50 for any voter application they fail to turn in within 48 hours.

Current law makes it voluntary for such groups to register and allows 10 days for forwarding the forms before the fine kicks in. The Legislature approved the changes on Thursday; they await Scott's signature to become law.

"This bill streamlines the registration process and tightens regulations surrounding third-party groups to ensure voter fraud is kept to a minimum," Senate sponsor Miguel Diaz de la Portilla said Friday, the day after the bill passed.

The proposed changes drew howls from the League, which argued that the provisions were onerous and threatened to disenfranchise voters by making third-party registrations too difficult. GOP lawmakers were unmoved, however, and the bill moved along party-line votes to final passage.

"Every few years, the Legislature likes to put into place draconian laws that make it harder to vote," said League president Deirdre Macnab.

She argued that fraudulent third-party voter registrations have not been a problem in Florida and accused the bill's sponsors of failing to offer evidence to the contrary. "They're using 'fraud' as a red herring to pass a number of laws that not only will reduce voter registration, it will frustrate voters on Election Day."

Her latter comment referred to other revisions in the bill, such as reducing the number of early-voting days and restricting address changes at the polls.

The only true example of fraud that lawmakers provided, she said, was that of fraudulent registrations submitted by ACORN, a national organization that was scandalized when some of its employees were found to have filed false registration forms. The liberal organization formally disbanded last year.

Even ACORN flagged suspect applications, ultimately blocking them from entering the statewide voter database, Macnab said. The Legislature, she said, is "creating solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. We already have systems and procedures in place; forms that are not accurate are thrown out by the elections supervisor."

In their announcement, League officials declared that "we cannot and will not place our thousands of volunteers at risk, subjecting them to a process in which one late form could result in their facing financial and civil penalties.

"By passing HB 1355, the Legislature has declared war on voters. Effective immediately, the League will begin to explore legal remedies. In the meantime, the League urges Governor Rick Scott to stand up for democracy and veto HB 1355."

House sponsor Dennis Baxley called the League's threats to disband their registration efforts "a shame," but said, "I think they're overreacting."

The legislation, said Baxley, R-Ocala, targets only willful actions; if a group makes a good-faith effort to comply with the law, they will not have to pay fines for handing in registrations late.

Asked about the evidence of fraud, he said, "I don't think we need a smoking gun; I think all you've got to do is read a few ACORN stories to know the potential. And that's only what's been detected."

If the League sues to overturn the law — as Macnab said it may — it would not be the first time. The group was among several groups that took the state to court in 2006 over the Legislature's efforts to impose much heavier fines for late or lost voter registrations. A federal court overturned the law, finding it was unconstitutional.

It remained unclear Monday whether other groups that register voters might also suspend their efforts if the law takes effect. Organizations including the Florida State Conference of the NAACP and AFL-CIO did not respond to inquiries.

"Candidly, I think a lot of groups are still struggling to get their arms around this bill," Macnab said.

Asked about the governor's intentions concerning the bill, spokesman Brian Burgess did not indicate how Scott will act.

"The governor still needs to review the language," Burgess said. "He feels strongly that we should make it as easy as possible for people to vote while eliminating loopholes for vote fraud."

cwhittenburg@tampatrib.com

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