Law puts thousands of Florida voter IDs in question

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Sat, Sep. 27, 2008
Law puts thousands of Florida voter IDs in question
Florida's controversial 'no-match' law has already called into question thousands of new voter registrations.

BY MARC CAPUTO
[e-mail]
TALLAHASSEE -- About 3,200 new voters are in the cross-hairs of Florida's new and controversial ''no-match'' law, which could force them to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if officials can't confirm their identities.

The law, designed to prevent potential election fraud and remove joke names from voter rolls -- ''Ricco Suave'' and ''Joe Blow'' among them -- requires local elections officials to mail letters to anyone whose registration information doesn't match the state's driver's license or Social Security databases.

Only those who registered after Sept. 8 are affected. Since then, 71,000 new Florida voters have registered through Monday, according to Florida's elections division.

Miami-Dade County has now issued about 1,200 no-match letters, Election Supervisor Lester Sola said. Broward County sent out about 84 as of last week, said the election office's public services director, Mary Cooney.

The numbers are changing as new voters are added to the voter rolls through the Oct. 6 registration deadline.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/979/story/703761.html

[Eric J in MN]

1. "you put your mail aside and don't open it right away...."

"...So you may have no idea that there wasn't a match."

The law is a bad idea in the first place, but at least they should be required to phone people who don't match and leave a message on their machines if no one picks up.

[retread]

2. Bullshit. As if this wasn't the main purpose the law was written in the first

place. Not "The law, designed to prevent potential election fraud and remove joke names from voter rolls.."

[Dr.Phool]

3. Another thing. Absentee ballots require NO identification.

I got mine last week, and dropped it off on Monday.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Just to be clear. That is not true in every state. Some absentees require ID.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. People who are going to have a problem are those who sign "Bob" for

"Robert." But a Gus for Gustav should be okay. So I was told.

[nashville_brook]

11. also, any married women who took their husbands' name or hyphenated.

[nashville_brook]

15. or, for that matter, any woman who divorces and has tried to change her name back

[nashville_brook]

12. also, people who go by their middle name (as I do) - "official" records often don't have a slot for

that

[Votergater]

6. Why didn't they test this law in the primaries?

Suddenly bringing the new match law in for the presidential election is deeply foolhardy or
deeply suspicious.

[Ian David]

7. Dick Pinch in Clear Lake, Iowa is a real person. n/t

[nashville_brook]

13. so is Dick Trickle.

[Usrename]

19. So is Dick Foot.

[Keefer]

21. So is Richard Head.

He was a captain in the USAF when I was active duty.

[KamaAina]

22. So is Mike Hunt.

In fact, he's the sheriff in Aiken County, SC.

I believe he finally caught on and is now going by "Michael". :-)

[KaryninMiami]

8. And then there's that little other law here that prohibits a recount of the paper ballots-

That's right- we have new opti-scan machines which we fought for so we could have a paper ballot backup but according to state law, in the event of a close election, we are only legally allowed to recount-- the MACHINE Counts. They will count or review the over and under votes using the paper ballots but if we want to recount the actual election, we have to go to court.

Remind me again why I live here? Ah yes- no snow. With global warming it may soon be warm enough to move back up to a blue state again...

[Overseas]

9. Republican law to disenfranchise more Democrats, pretending

to prevent fraud such as joke registrations? Like that's a really rampant crime? Gee, thank goodness we don't have Donald Duck voting again?

The much bigger problem is another law that allows Republicans to challenge registrations at the polls (somehow they'll just send challengers to Democratic precincts) JUST TO SLOW THINGS DOWN. Republicans want ways to slow things down so that Democrats give up and go home.

We've heard about a few of these new registration verification laws that technically permit challenging voters at the polls.

When Republicans did that last time, it did not raise nearly enough alarm in the network commentaries as it should have. The Republicans were challenging votes in Democratic precincts in Ohio. They knew there wasn't much chance of Mickey Mouse fake identity fraud. All they wanted to do was slow things way way down and they managed that. Yet networks treated it as though the Republicans were legitimately challenging to prevent a serious problem.

[Enthusiast]

10. They even did this on NPR.

"Yet networks treated it as though the Republicans were legitimately challenging to prevent a serious problem."

These fascists have the media under the impression that voter fraud is the issue. What a media! Dumb shits!

[lonestarnot]

14. Add in a sprinkle of not enough polling places, a machine shortage, and long lines and

where have I seen this play before? :argh:

[iandhr]

16. the fix is in...

... again

[nashville_brook]

17. WI drops "no-match" law after 4 of 6 judges fail the "match process" (matching fails 20-30% of time)

http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/no_match_dropped_after_4_of_6_judges_fail/


“No Match” Dropped After 4 of 6 Judges Fail

By Adam Skaggs – 09/08/08

When Wisconsin considered preventing voters from casting regular ballots if the state didn't find a "complete match" of the voter's data in the motor vehicle or Social Security database and the voter didn't have acceptable proof of residence at the polls, we warned them it was a bad idea. As we explained, it's bad policy to make a complete "HAVA match" a precondition to voting a regular ballot, because matching voter data fails from 20-30% of the time.

We were right: the initial results from Wisconsin showed a match failure rate of 22%. That is, nearly 1 in 4 voters weren't successfully "matched" with other government data—not because they weren't eligible to vote, but because of typos, missed middle initials, and other minor problems.

Thankfully, Wisconsin heard the message and rejected the proposed matching rule.

The latest news confirms just how right that decision was. As a test, Wisconsin took the voter registration records of the six retired judges who serve on the Government Accountability Board—the body that oversees elections—and ran them through the "HAVA match" process. The result? Four of the six judges didn't match.

[bobthedrummer]

20. Related active LBN thread: "Van Hollen attorney met with GOP officials before election suit"

(started 9-20-2008)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3501560

[Wizard777]

18. Some people actually have joke names. Like Donald Duck. Who was an FBI Agent.

Then you have Sarah Palins kids.

[OakCliffDem]

23. Kick