Florida Supreme Court upholds provisional ballot law

3.30pm


MIAMI - Florida voters whose status is questioned at the polls can only cast ballots at designated precincts, the state Supreme Court said in a ruling that could affect some residents displaced by hurricanes.

The AFL-CIO labor union had asked the courts to invalidate a law that disqualifies provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, even if the voter is legally registered to vote.

Provisional ballots were established by the US Congress after the messy 2000 presidential election, when some voters complained they were barred from voting even though they were legally registered. States implemented the law differently. Florida and 25 other states and Washington, D.C., required provisional voters to cast ballots in assigned precincts.

Critics of the law in Florida, a battleground state in the Nov. 2 presidential election, had said voters displaced by hurricanes this year or given flawed instructions should be allowed to cast ballots outside their designated precincts.

Thousands of Floridians were displaced by four major hurricanes in August and September. Some polling sites were destroyed and critics of the law said information on new polling places may not have reached voters.

State and local elections officials argued the law reflected the intent of Florida's legislature and should not be changed by the courts. They warned that invalidating it would make a shambles of Election Day in what is expected to be a tight presidential race in a key swing state on Nov. 2.

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

"We hold that the plaintiffs have failed to show that the precinct-specific provision ... imposes an unreasonable or unnecessary restraint on the elective process," the court wrote.

The federal law allows voters whose status is questioned at the polls to cast provisional ballots. Local canvassing boards then check voter registration rolls to determine if the vote should be counted.

Democrats, labor unions and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that voters should be allowed to cast provisional ballots at any precinct as long as they do not vote in local races where they are not constituents.

Florida opened early voting on Monday, allowing citizens to cast ballots at a limited number of polling stations in advance of Election Day.

- REUTERS