FLA Sued to Prevent the Disenfranchisement of Thousands of Black/ Latino Voters
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 at 06:54PM
TheSpook
Today, the People for the American Way, SEIU and the
AFL-CIO filed suit in federal court in Miami against Florida
Secretary of State Glenda Hood and the Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade,
Orange, and Palm Beach County Supervisors of Elections to stop the
disenfranchisement of thousands of Florida residents caused by the
unlawful conduct of state and local officials. Extensive and
tireless efforts have been conducted throughout the state to register
new voters. As a result of these efforts, the number of registered
voters has reached unprecedented numbers. But the voting rights of many
Floridians may be denied because of state officials' failure to process
valid voter registration applications or notify applicants in a timely
manner that their applications were deemed to be incomplete.
These unlawful practices have a disparate impact on prospective Black
and Latino voters. In Miami-Dade County, Blacks comprise more than 35
percent and Latinos more than 25 percent of applications deemed
incomplete. In particular, our action seeks to preserve the
voting rights of more than 10,000 Floridians who are eligible to vote
and who registered to vote in advance of the October 4 deadline, but
whose applications the Supervisors of Elections have refused to process
because they have adopted unduly restrictive registration procedures
that violate federal election laws. [more ] and [more ] and [more ]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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