Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Democrats Sue Florida Over Vote-by-Mail Verification


Democrats are suing Florida’s top Election official in Federal Court to stop the practice of Election officials tossing Vote by Mail ballots if the signature on the ballot envelope does not match the one on file.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida by the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee. The listed defendant is Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who oversee State elections.

“This is a case about the denial of the fundamental right to vote of thousands of Florida voters who vote-by-mail,” read the lawsuit.

The case is being brought by attorney Mark Herron, one of Florida’s most prominent Democratic attorneys, and attorneys from Perkins Coie, which is the law firm for Democrats Nationally.

At issue is the signing of a Vote-by-Mail ballot envelope. In cases when a person does not sign the envelope, State law gives them the opportunity to submit an affidavit confirming they are the one who cast the ballot. That same opportunity is not afforded to those whose signature on the envelope does not match the one in the State’s Voter file.

The request for an emergency injunction to halt the practice comes as 2.3 million Vote-by-Mail ballots have already been sent to voters. Of those, 1 million have gone to Republicans, 896,180 have gone to Democrats, and 399,949 have gone to those with no Party affiliation.

Florida is the Nation’s largest Swing State and has notoriously close Presidential elections, which make the Mail-by-Ballot verification process important as Campaigns and Political Parties try to wring every vote out of the electorate they can. Clinton got a boost out of the first Presidential debate, but currently holds just a 2.9 percentage-point lead over Trump, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polling.

The most ballots have been sent to Democratic voters in the counties of Miami-Dade (106,234), Broward (105,234), Pinellas (101,832), Orange (73,249), and Hillsborough (73,091). The counties requesting the most Republican ballots are Pinellas (107,072), Miami-Dade (100,330), Lee (83,798), Hillsborough (70,852), and Broward (52,065).

The number of Vote-by-Mail ballots is usually far less than 1% of a County's overall Vote-by-Mail total.

The lawsuit points to the fact that a person’s signature can change over time, and those who have conditions like arthritis or other physical disabilities may have trouble keeping a consistent signature.

“Troublingly, it is likely that these are just the sorts of voters who would need to cast a vote-by-mail ballot because of physical difficulties presented by voting in person,” read the lawsuit.

State law includes no standard format for Local Election Canvassing Boards to compare signatures. As a result, Democrats say there is a lack of consistency from County-to-County when deciding which ballots to toss.

“For example, in the 2012 General election, Seminole and Alachua Counties were ten times more likely than Sarasota, Hillsborough, and Leon counties to reject a vote-by-mail ballot as illegal for signature mismatch,” read the lawsuit.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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