"State's Voter Rolls Shrinking" [Florida, despite record growth]

[Sancho]

Source: St. Petersburg Times

TALLAHASSEE - Despite Florida's rapid growth, the number of voters in the state has dropped to its lowest level in three years, a trend that could have an impact in a close, high-turnout presidential election in 2008.

On the surface, it's a stunning contradiction: a shrinking pool of voters in a high-growth state.

The main reason for the dropoff is a state law that requiring that in odd-numbered years, voter rolls be purged of people who have moved but never updated their addresses and those who have skipped two straight statewide elections.

Voters who move and don't respond to mail notices from an elections office are listed as inactive. They can still vote, but they are not counted as registered voters.

Read more: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/06/news_pf/State/State_s_voter_rolls_s.shtml

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Here's the 2008 election already decided. A legal form of caging.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Caging? Not necessarily

Voter rolls do need to be cleaned out on a regular basis, otherwise you end up with graveyards having a high voter turnout. How would you suggest keeping voter rolls up-to-date?

The questions I want to ask after reading the article are: Why are so many people moving and not updating their registration? Why are so many people not voting in elections? And why are so many people moving to the state and not bothering to register as voters in the first place?

I have my theories, but if I share them my post will very likely be deleted.

[EFerrari]

2. The good people of Florida have figured out their votes aren't

counted so why bother.

[Mika]

3. Wasn't it on the order of 75% of Fla's provisional ballots were not counted?

Among other things, the provisional ballot had to be made in the voter's home precinct - after a major "consolidation" and "reorganization" of precints with little public notice given.


-High court clarifies provisional ballot use-
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/19/State/High_court_clarifies_.shtml

TALLAHASSEE - Florida voters can't use provisional ballots except in their home precincts, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday.

The state's largest labor unions and the American Civil Liberties Union contended that the law restricting provisional ballots to home precincts would disenfranchise voters. Besides, they argued, the state constitution merely says votes must be cast in someone's home county, not home precinct.

But the court said the state Constitution gives the Legislature the power to set election rules, and the law it passed clearly states that provisional ballots must be cast in home precincts.

The Legislature created provisional ballots in the wake of the 2000 Florida election mess when an untold number of people could not vote because elections officials mistakenly concluded they were not registered. Some were removed from the rolls because elections officials erroneously thought they were felons, who are barred from voting unless they have their rights restored.

The Supreme Court said the precinct system is "a regulation of the voting process, not a qualification placed on the voter."

Representatives from the ACLU and the Democratic Party, which has strong ties to the labor unions, expressed disappointment.

"I think it's a tragedy because we now will have some people shut out of the process," said Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox. He urged Florida lawmakers to change the law.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood applauded the decision because it will help ensure an orderly election.

====

Of course, if too many Dems vote in Florida an orderly election just can't be ensured.

[formercia]

5. ...and by law, everyone must vote...

[MidwestTransplant]

4. I think that the ability to conduct mass vote fraud with voters is highly overstated

and a RW boogieman to legitimize their purge of legitimate voters or make it more difficult to vote. Any large scale fraud requires participation from dozens if not hundreds of people. Somebody would talk. However, the ability to change vote tallies after people vote is another matter.

[Tempest]

6. They don't have to conduct mass voter fraud

All they have to do is conduct mass voter caging, which was done in Florida and Ohio in 2004.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. That's my point. They use vote caging to fight what they call "voter fraud" which is a fraud in

of itself.

[seasat]

8. I read that article this morning.

Here's the biggest problem with it.

Under the old law, elections officials who were notified by the U.S. Postal Service that a voter had moved could update the voter's records and contact the voter at the new address.

The new law requires that election officials send reminders to the voter's old, incorrect address.

"It's inane. It's just crazy," said the state's chief elections official, Secretary of State Kurt Browning. "The whole idea is to keep people on the voter registration roll."

Browning said he would ask lawmakers to change the law back to the way it was before 2005.

Most people don't realize that when they put a change of address notice at the Post Office, they have to also change their address at the elections office.

[Sancho]

9. Exactly the point...

I think the intent of the law was to exclude voters who go to college, join the military, move often (young), etc...and to do a legal form of caging.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. No Match No Vote rule, and who is fixing it?

Voting is not supposed to be a requirement for staying on the voter rolls.

BUT the article says that SOS Browning is trying to reverse that law that removes people
from the rolls without trying to contact them at the forwarded address.

Other causes of decreasing voter rolls in Florida:

1. Failure to enforce Section 7 of the NVRA - govt & public assistance agencies registering voters,

2. "No Match No Vote" policy or law, when a person attempts to register to vote, they will have to provide either a drivers license number or a social security number on their registration form.
If they don't have those, then they provide a nother form of ID.

Next, the state runs the ss or dl #s through the corresponding databases, seeking a match.
In Florida, the failure to match the social security numbers is about 20% or higher.
The DMV is easier to match. Social Security doesn't provide an explanation as to why the match failed.

In Florida's case, if there isn't an exact (or very close) match, the voter will not be registered.

That is not what HAVA intended, and Florida is one of the few states left still doing this.

If a person doesn't match, then they are just to provide id at the polling place and they can cast
a regular ballot.

AFAIK, no one in Florida is working to correct the "No Match No Vote" rule.

See the Brennan Center for Justice writeup on this
http://www.brennancenter.org/stack_detail.asp?key=97&subkey=38413&init_key=9160