Don't Add to Chaos on Election Day

Florida Education Association Andy Ford urged state election officials today to avoid Election Day chaos and suspend implementation of the state’s “No Match, No Vote” law.

“Beginning the implementation of this law so late in this election season adds to the burden that state and county election officials are facing,” Ford said. “Thousands of new voters will be looking to cast their votes on November Fourth and this could result in large numbers of legal voters being denied their right to vote because of a simple mistake like a typo.”

The numbers bear his concerns out. The Orlando Sentinel has reported that in the past three weeks, the Division of Elections says it has received 131,540 new voter registrations and has flagged 20,335 of them for no-matches.

“With some groups predicting voter turnout will be 85 percent for this historic election and with the fact that many counties are working with new voting equipment this year, this is not the time to introduce more chaos into Florida voting,” Ford said. “Just last week, state election officials said they were inundated by all the applications for new registration and sought help from the counties. We need to make sure this election comes off smoothly. There is no time to process all the matches, work out the kinks in the system, contact affected voters and educate poll workers. This is a recipe for disaster.”

The law was enacted, its supporters say, to prevent voting fraud, a problem that has been nearly nonexistent, the Justice Department said earlier this year. It prevents newly registered voters from voting by regular ballot if the state doesn't verify their drivers license or Social Security number by matching it with a state or federal database -- even when the source of the problem is a clerical error or typographical error.

County officials must notify unmatched applicants who, to be added to the voter rolls, must provide a copy of their drivers license or Social Security card. If applicants don't receive or understand that notice and appear at the polls on Election Day, they get a provisional ballot -- which won't count unless they give officials a copy of their valid identification card within 48 hours.

“This would be a logistical nightmare and would deny many hard-working Floridians their vote,” Ford said. “If someone votes by provisional ballot, it will be their responsibility to clear up ID snafu in 48 hours. Not too many people will be able to do that in the 48 hours after a Tuesday election, because they’ll be hard at work and unable to take time off to go to their county election office.”

The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with more than 140,000 members. FEA represents pre K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational support professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2008
Contact: Mark Pudlow
850.201.3223 or 850.508.9756