Whoop! Jeb's FL voting laws stricken down!!

[AnnInLa]

MIAMI -- A federal judge on Monday declared a new Florida voter registration law unconstitutional, ruling that its stiff penalties for violations threaten free speech rights and that political parties were improperly exempted.

The 48-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz means that state authorities cannot enforce the provisions of the law. It took effect Jan. 1 and has been blamed by several labor unions and nonprofit groups for effectively blocking voter registration drives across the state because of the financial risk.

big snip


"If third-party voter registration organizations permanently cease their voter registration efforts, Florida citizens will be stripped of an important means and choice of registering to vote and of associating with one another," Seitz wrote.

The law also "unconstitutionally discriminates" against third-party registration groups because it does not apply to political parties, Seitz added.

big snip

"This is a win for democracy and will send a signal to officials in Florida and other states that you cannot erect unreasonable barriers to voter registration," said Wendy Weiser, co-counsel for the third-party groups and deputy director of the Democracy Program at the New York University law school's Brennan Center for Justice. The plaintiffs in the case included the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and other groups.

go read the ENTIRE thing at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082800502.html

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

:bounce:

[marmar]

10. Your pic is all wrong...

Those kids are way smarter than he is.

[Surya Gayatri]

21. Swamp, that's an insult to those

fine-looking kids! LOL! Jeb would have to be surrounded by a pod of protazoa to be considered among his peers. SG

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. No, afraid not. THIS is Jeb's intellectual peer.

Though I'm going to guess the slug has a stiffer moral code.

[midnight]

26. To think that Jeb is suppost to be the smater of the two Bush boys.

No wonder this country is going south.

[texpatriot2004]

27. all those bushes doing Unconstitutional things nm

[Sherman A1]

2. Somedays you get the bear

and other days....

[saltpoint]

3. Hurray for Judge Seitz. I hadn't heard before of Wendy Weiser, but

she sounds absolutely tremendous.

The Democratic Party ought to let her run a couple states' campaign efforts.

Great news out of Florida.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Jeb is Scum. The Courts Are Working.

Once again I thank our Founders for designing a government capable of withstanding a full frontal attack on Democracy by the Bush family and its allies in the Middle East, China, and elsewhere.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Here's to democracy!!

:toast:

[marmar]

6. Excellent...

A slap in his fat, jowled, trough-feeding face.

[never_get_over_it]

7. This is the BEST NEWS

I've heard regarding this God foresaken state since I moved here two years ago...THANK YOU for posting

[movonne]

8. k&r

[Richard Steele]

9. WhooHoo! Hooray for Judges who FOLLOW THE LAW!!!!! recommended!

[formercia]

11. This is big news

I hope it comes in time.

[Red Right and BLUE]

12. yyyyyyyyyyyyeah

:kick:

great news!

[robinlynne]

13. Yeah!!! About time for a pinch of good news!

Now they're gonna go after the judge, no doubt.......

[eleny]

14. They may hate us for our democracy - but they have to respect our laws

K&R!

[ElboRuum]

15. Suh-WEET! k&r n/t

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. What are you whooping about?

The law says that collected voter registration forms have to be submitted promptly ... I've done it in Florida; we had no trouble getting the paperwork in on time.

I can understand striking this down because it doesn't apply to political parties, but the law itself would protect potential voters from those who fraudulently tell them their registration is completed.

If you want to hear about nasty laws that are still on the books - we couldn't get ex-felons to apply for clemency because one rule stipulates that employers can be contacted. Try convincing someone to attempt the process under those circumstances.

[gully]

20. Exactly.

the law itself would protect potential voters from those who fraudulently tell them their registration is completed.

add me to the list of non-whoopers.

[AnnInLa]

17. I have to ask some questions....anyone know

if this ruling affects the stringent voting-registration laws enacted in GOP ruled states? Does it affect stringent voter suppression laws, mainly affecting minorities? Is this as huge as I think it is?

[warrens]

18. Rule of law

Something the Repukes USED to support. When it fit their purposes.

[gully]

19. Why would Jeb want to hinder Nader from assisting with theft again in 2008

When they are not allowed to purge voters in Florida, I'll consider that a victory.

[AnnInLa]

23. Fredda and Gully.....it was a "whoop" because this

law was just one of a group of laws that the League of Women Voters were tying to get overturned. My thinking is that if this one gets overturned, then the others have a better chance to get overturned as well. One of the group of laws had something to do with inaccuracies in the voter reg form disqualifying the potential voter. Another one had to do with if someone has moved since their original form was submitted, but their new address is not on record......There were alot of articles about and bloggers who wrote about the new laws being passed by GOP state legislatures to stifle new registrations, particularly of poor people, because poorly educated people make mistakes on their forms and don't stay current with the rules. I'll try to find some of them.....anyhoo, this is very good, especially if the same judge is going to rule on all of the questions. And, I think her decision (s) will affect similar laws in other states.

[gully]

30. Gotcha

thanks for the information.

[cyberpj]

24. seems they just appeal until they get to one of theri own judges. nt

won't they?

[BlooInBloo]

25. But... but.... his DNA didn't match the crime scene!

[AnnInLa]

28. Why this IS a whoop....from Salon.com

The Criminalization of Voter Registration Drives:

Opinion polls show that a majority of the public wants a Democratic Congress, but whether potential voters -- black and Latino voters in particular -- will be able to make their voices heard on Election Day is not assured. Across the country, they will have to contend with Republican-sponsored schemes to limit voting. In a series of laws passed since the 2004 elections, Republican legislators and officials have come up with measures to suppress the turnout of traditional Democratic voting blocs. This fall the favored GOP techniques are new photo I.D. laws, the criminalizing of voter registration drives, and database purges that have disqualified up to 40 percent of newly registered voters from voting in such jurisdictions as Los Angeles County.


FLORIDA
Will the fiasco-prone Sunshine State be the next ... Florida? That's the question that has haunted observers of Florida's election system since the debacle of 2000. Six years later, Florida is still Florida, only more so. Florida still has a Republican governor, Legislature, and secretary of state, and still doesn't have voter-verified paper trails for its vulnerable voting machines. Hundreds of thousands of voters remain at serious risk of being robbed of the vote.

This year, however, it also has a package of new voting rules, like restrictions on voter registration campaigns. The fines for violations are now so stiff that they forced the League of Women Voters to suspend its voter drives in the state for the first time in nearly 70 years. Each misplaced blank registration form means a potential penalty of $5,000. Just 16 misplaced blank forms, even if destroyed by a hurricane, could cost the Florida League $80,000 -- its entire annual state budget.

Another codicil in the new state voting law essentially endorses the thuggery of 2000. It permits roving bands of political partisans -- the same sort of goons who banged on the glass doors at the Miami election board six years ago to halt the recount -- to descend on inner-city precincts to challenge any voter's right to cast a vote on Election Day. The challenged voter will then be forced to use what reformers call a "placebo ballot" -- a provisional ballot that makes the voter feel like he voted, except the vote will count only if he comes back later to offer written proof that he was entitled to vote. "The use of challenges is likely to disenfranchise a lot of people," observes Lida Rodriquez-Taseff, the chair of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition.

Key races: Five Republican House seats are in play.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/08/15/states/index.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

29. Why is third party registration so vital to democracy when...

Actually voting third party is so widely denounced? If one such "an important means and choice of registering to vote and of associating with one another," why isn't the other also an important means and choice of voting and of associating with one another?

Methinks I smell the foul stench of a double standard.

[comtec]

31. Third parties help with registration

We have this a lot in California.
Neutral parties who just want to educate and register the populace.
If you restrict third parties (Such as the MTV Rock the Vote campaign) you greatly reduce the number of voters. The GOP sees this as good as the general public tends to vote democratic. A handful vote GOP not knowing any better.

The registration drives at my local Jr. College (DVC) were every year and generally set up by local student (technically third parties). many people registered, lord knows how many actually voted.

IIRC once you register, you are sent a note in the mail letting you know you are in fact registered.

The point on 3rd parties has always been for radical ideas. What the green party ONCE stood for was less industrial, more natural, blah blah blah. Sadly they lost any credibility in the '00 (s)election. but that's aside.

If you restrict a third party you are restricting democracy, and people's GOD GIVEN RIGHT! (whatever deity or lack of same you happen to possibly believe in)

[McCamy Taylor]

32. Has the League of Women Voters moved back to Florida?