Effort to Place Charter Amendment for Civilian Oversight of Police on Ballot Stymied By State Law Creating “No Approach Zone”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, August 11, 2008
CONTACT:
ACLU of Florida Communications Office, (786) 363-2737 or media@aclufl.org
FT. MYERS, Fla. –The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Middle District, Fort Myers Division challenging a Florida statute that restricts approaching voters, including gathering petition signatures within 100 feet of a polling place, after voters have cast their ballots.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Citizens for Police Accountability Political Committee and the Florida State Conference NAACP. The signature gathering effort at issue in the lawsuit involves a petition to place a proposed Charter Amendment on the ballot to allow citizens of Fort Myers to decide whether to create a citizen oversight panel for the Fort Myers Police Department. Citizens for Police Accountability is a political committee formed by the ACLU of Florida for the purposes of undertaking the Fort Myers petition drive.
The lawsuit seeks an order declaring the Florida statute’s “100 Foot No-Approach Zone” an unconstitutional infringement of the petition-gatherers’ first amendment rights.
“The ACLU of Florida has joined with Fort Myers-based organizations to allow them to solicit petition signatures from voters within 100 feet of polling places during the August 26 2008 Florida Primary Election,” said attorney Muslima Lewis, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s Racial Justice and Voting Rights Projects. “Petition gatherers have the right under the First Amendment to solicit signatures from voters who are leaving polling places. This activity is entirely distinct from electioneering activity related to a current election,” Lewis added.
The lawsuit challenges the portion of Florida law which was amended in 2006 to increase the “No Approach Zone” from 50 to 100 feet. The law was amended again in 2008 to take account of a court ruling in a successful legal challenge filed by media companies to allow them to conduct exit polling within the 100 Foot “No Approach Zone.”
“There is no constitutionally valid distinction between exit polling by media companies and petition-gathering by citizen groups. Citizen petition gatherers should not have any less right to approach voters leaving polling places than members of the media who are conducting exit polling,” Lewis noted.
The lawsuit notes that the best method for procuring signatures of qualified voters is to seek voters’ signatures after they have left a polling place or early voting site. The greater the distance from the polling place that petition-gatherers are required to stand decreases the opportunity for registered voters to sign the petition.
“The state-mandated 100 feet ‘No Approach Zone’ is yet another anti-democratic measure imposed by the Florida legislature and the Florida Secretary of State that suppresses civic participation,” said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. “This unconstitutionally broad ‘No Approach Zone’ is similar to the penalties imposed on voter registration groups, the State’s ‘no match’ voter registration law, and other measures that stifle voter participation. The State should be encouraging more participation in the voting process not less.”
The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Florida and its cooperating attorneys, Gregg Thomas, James McGuire and Paul McAdoo, of the Tampa firm Thomas and LoCicero. Muslima Lewis and ACLU Foundation of Florida attorney Rebecca Harrison Steele of Tampa are also representing plaintiffs in the case.
About the ACLU of Florida
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit our Web site at: www.aclufl.org.
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