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August 23, 2012

  • Black Architect Designed U. S. Nazi Compound

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  • Lawsuit: Wet Seal Was Swimming in Racism

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  • Obamas’ First Kiss is Solid as a Rock

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  • Business Leaders Say Obama Would Be Better for the Global Economy

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  • Cell Phone App Allows Voters to Register

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  • Eugene Chen, China’s Black Foreign Minister

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

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  • Ethiopia's Prime Minister Dies

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  • Activism - Then and Now

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Voting protesters

Court Strikes Down Limits on Early Voting in 5 Florida Counties

by Frederick H. Lowe
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has struck down part of Florida’s new law that limited early voting, a process in which African Americans voted at twice the rate of white voters in the 2008 presidential election.

Florida is an undecided state and its 29 electoral votes could decide who captures the needed 270 Electoral College Votes to win the White House in 2012.

A three-judge panel ruled last Thursday in the case, State of Florida vs United States of America, that reducing early voting hours in Hillsborough, Collier, Monroe, Hardee and Hendry counties would disproportionately affect minorities.

The U. S. Justice Department had to preclear the reduced early voting hours because the counties are covered under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act due to past discrimination against African-American voters. The Justice Department rejected the changes, and Florida appealed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The three-judge panel also rejected Florida’s changes to early voting in the five counties.

“We conclude that we cannot, at this time, preclear Florida’s early voting changes because the state has failed to satisfy its burden of proving that those changes will not have a retrogressive effect on minority voters,” the justices wrote. “Specifically, the state has not proven that the changes will be nonretrogressive if the covered counties offer only the minimum number of early voting hours that they are required to offer under the new statute, which would constitute only half the hours required under the prior law.”

The counties have a combined population of 1.7 million according to the 2010 census. Some 12 percent of the counties’ voting-age population is African American, 16 percent is Hispanic and 68 percent is white. Asian and Native Americans make up the balance.

The Republican-dominated Florida legislature approved HB 1355, which changed the state’s hours regarding early voting. Florida Gov. Rick Scott on May 19, 2011, signed the bill into law.  

Prior to HB1355, Florida approved a law in 2005, which provided 14 days of early voting beginning on the 15th day before the election and ending on the second day before an election. The law also said that early voting had to be eight hours each day during the week and a total of eight hours over each weekend for a total of 96 hours of early voting.

Early voting sites were required to open no sooner than 7 a.m. and close no later than 7 p.m. each applicable day.

Under HB 1355, Republicans reduced the starting time of early voting to the 10th day before an election and early voting ended three days before the election for a total of eight days, down from the previous 12, the justices wrote. The law also gave county election officials discretion in determining the number of the hours they wanted to devote to early voting.

“If  a local supervisor chooses to offer the minimum number of hours, such as 6 hours per day, then the early voting  period would last  only 48 hours in total, exactly half of the hours that were offered under the prior law,” the justices wrote.

Paul Gronke, professor of Political Science at Reed College and director of the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore., testified in 2008 that 54 percent of African-American voters cast ballots using early, in-person voting, which was twice the rate of white voters.

Gronke noted that the trends regarding early voting by African Americans are expected to continue in the 2012 general election.

The court’s decision only affected the five counties. U. S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents Florida’s 17th district, which includes parts of Dade and Broward counties, said she was happy with the court’s decision to block Republicans’ attempts to curtail early voting in the five counties. Wilson, however, was disappointed that the state’s other voters must live under HB1355.

“We now have two separate sets of rules for voters.” she said. “It’s unconscionable and it will be confusing. Inevitably, it will lead to college students, minorities, seniors and others being disenfranchised. The best way to guarantee that your vote counts is to get an absentee ballot.”  

To contact the Miami-Dade Elections Department, call 305 499-8444 or visit http://www.miamidade.gov/elections/vote_absentee.asp, she said. For the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, call 954 357-7050 or visit http://www.browardsoe.org/content.aspx?id=30.

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