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Letter to Honorable Tom Feeney Speaker
Florida House of Representatives
Florida House of Representatives
April 27, 2001
SENT VIA E-MAIL APRIL 27, 2001
RE: Voter Rights and Responsibilities
Dear Speaker Feeney:
We write to express grave concern about the statement of voter rights and responsibilities that is included in the package of House and Senate Bills on voting reform, namely House Bills 1921 and 1925 and Senate Bills 1118 and 1374. Even at this late date, we urge you to carefully consider the following and revise this statement of rights and responsibilities.
Citizens should be educated about their right to vote in order that they may fully take on the mantle of civic responsibility that is part of our representative government. However, any mandatory instructions or education must be carefully crafted in order to prevent a "chilling effect" on the desire and ability to vote.
Any signage in the polling place has an enhanced impact on the voters. The polling place should be designed to protect the voter's right to vote. It is for this reason that campaign free zones have been created around polling places. Therefore any list of responsibilities that looks like "instructions" and is posted in this otherwise campaign free zone could easily be interpreted as "requirements" by an unsophisticated or new voter.
In addition, the imposition of additional "requirements" or "responsibilities" on minority voters is precisely what the Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c, requires that any alteration of a "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting" be precleared by the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department before it can become law in any preclearance jurisdiction. This includes the following five Florida Counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe. The Department of Justice's implementing regulations for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 28 C.F.R. §51.13 list the following examples of changes that are covered by the preclearance requirement:
a) Any change in qualifications or eligibility for voting.
b) Any change concerning registration, balloting, and the counting of votes and any change concerning publicity for or assistance in registration or voting.
Thus, the "voter responsibilities" is required to be precleared because it falsely leads the voter to believe that additional qualifications and eligibility standards have been imposed and created by the bill and because, at the very least, it is a change "concerning publicity for or assistance in registration or voting." Furthermore, the Supreme Court has stated that the preclearance requirement is to be given the broadest possible scope to reach any state enactment which alters election law in even a minor way, and that all changes, no matter how small, are subject to preclearance. Perkins v. Matthews, 400 U.S. 379 (1971).
Statutes which are subject to preclearance are ineffective as laws until cleared by the federal government. NAACP v. Hampton County Election Comm'n, 470 U.S. 166 (1985). For the reasons set forth below, the Justice Department should not be expected to preclear the provision because it is retrogressive, and will further discourage minority participation in the political process. Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 520 U.S. 471 (1997). This section of the bill package violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (applicable to the entire State of Florida) for the same reasons.
Consider in particular the responsibility "to study and know candidates and issues." This requirement will have a chilling effect on new voters and those less familiar with the system, both of whom are more likely to be minorities. Furthermore, there is no legal authority for this requirement. If such a requirement actually existed, it might be considered analogous to the literacy tests that figured so prominently as a key barrier in the struggle for civil rights and voting rights. The "responsibility" to become familiar with the issues could easily remind African American voters of many southern states' practice of requiring an "understanding" of the state constitution in order to vote. The imposition of this and similar requirements was a primary means of disenfranchising black voters.
Additional entries on the "responsibilities" list also significantly threaten voter participation.
"Know his or her precinct and its hours of operation"
"Know how to operate voting equipment properly"
"Check his or her completed ballot for accuracy"
These so-called voter responsibilities should be rewritten and included in the section on voter's rights. It is the responsibility of government to inform the voter as to the appropriate precinct and its hours of operation. Any confusion resulting from a lack of knowledge of the appropriate precinct is more likely due to the lack of communication between the Supervisor of Elections and the voter.
