Panel clears way for voter forms challenge

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thu, Sep. 29, 2005

COURTS

Panel clears way for voter forms challenge
Associated Press

A federal district court shouldn't have rejected a lawsuit from voters who wanted their partially filled-out voter registration forms approved for the 2004 presidential election, federal appeals judges ruled Wednesday.The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta cleared the way for lawyers representing three voters and AFL-CIO unions to again challenge Florida's voter registration forms.

The original lawsuit was filed in October 2004 against Secretary of State Glenda Hood and election supervisors in Duval, Orange, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It charged that material missing from the disqualified forms was unnecessary.

That lawsuit was thrown out in October by U.S. District Judge Lawrence King, who ruled that those suing had no legal standing. But on appeal, the 11th Circuit panel said there was legal standing for the lawsuit, and a new complaint could be filed in light of recently passed elections laws.

The incomplete forms in question were from people who signed to affirm their voter eligibility, but failed to provide an identification number -- such as from a driver's license or a Social Security card -- or check boxes affirming their citizenship, mental capacity and felony status.

Attorneys with the Advancement Project argued that the rejections had disqualified more than 10,000 people across the state, with a disparate effect on minorities. Nearly 45 percent of the challenged forms in one county, Duval, came from blacks.
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