For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
AFL-CIO, Unions Appear Before Florida Supreme Court on Provisional Ballot Lawsuit
Tallahassee, FL —A coalition of unions representing tens of thousands of Florida voters appeared before the state’s highest court today to request action that would require election officials to count all provisional ballots regardless of where they are cast.
At a press conference on the courthouse steps, representatives from the AFL-CIO and its two largest unions, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), discussed the hearing and their request that the court take action against a Florida law that could result in thousands of provisional ballots cast by eligible, registered voters being thrown out this November.
“We urge the Florida Supreme Court to uphold the state constitution and strike down this unconstitutional statute. Voters should not be penalized for factors beyond their control, such as errors in precinct lists or changes in polling locations,” said Jerry Traynham, an AFL-CIO Attorney. “Every voter that casts a provisional ballot in their county should leave with the confidence that their vote will count.”
The AFL-CIO, The American Federation of State, The County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), AFSCME Florida Council 79 and SEIU 1199 Florida are asking the state’s highest court to require elected officials to count all provisional ballots cast by registered voters, as defined by the Florida Constitution, if they are cast in the voters’ county of registration. Election officials have announced they will not count ballots unless they are cast in the correct precinct.
The plaintiffs argue that Florida voters have the fundamental right to vote, have their votes counted, and counted accurately – and that factors beyond voters’ control, such as errors in precinct registers, do not prevent qualified voters from voting. They also say that thousands of Floridians displaced by recent hurricanes could be disenfranchised because their precincts may no longer exist.
“Citizens across the state have the same right as Governor Bush and Secretary of State Hood to have their votes counted,” said AFSCME Attorney Alma Gonzalez of Tallahassee. “Since the primary in August, some polling places have changed or are no longer there. The hurricanes hit Florida hard and a lot of voters are very likely to show up at precincts other than those assigned to them. In many cases, they will be given a provisional ballot without being directed to their correct precinct location. The Court has to take action to ensure that these ballots are not automatically thrown out.”
After the 2000 debacle, provisional ballots were created to ensure that voters not listed on the registration rolls would be able to cast a ballot and have their vote count. However, a Florida law passed in 2001, adds an additional requirement to voter eligibility. Requiring that ballots cast in precincts other than those assigned by election officials be thrown out, the statute directly violates the Florida Constitution where a voter’s eligibility is defined as the “county in which they reside,” not precinct.
“This statute on provisional ballots stands to potentially disenfranchise thousands of Florida voters who vote by provisional ballot within their county, but outside their precinct. A decision to strike down this unconstitutional statute would be a huge gain for voter rights and important step toward ensuring that every eligible voter in the state will have their vote count this November,” said Attorney Jonathan Weissglass, an AFL-CIO attorney.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed by Congress in 2002, mandated provisional ballots to prevent properly registered voters from being turned away from the polls due to clerical errors and other problems that came to light in the 2000 elections. An estimated 1.5 to 3 million voters nationwide were unable to cast a ballot in the 2000 presidential election due to registration problems. However, at least 16 states across the country responded to HAVA by passing laws restricting access to these ballots, raising new questions about whether the ballots would be counted at all. Florida lawmakers adopted the provision requiring election officials to toss ballots cast in the wrong precincts during the 2001 Legislative Session, before the passage of HAVA.
