State officials say live voting a success despite virus fear, lawsuit over inflexibility
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee declared Florida’s virus-plagued presidential primary a success on Tuesday, even though a federal judge opened the door for a lawsuit alleging that the state disenfranchised voters because it did not do enough to provide alternatives for voters who feared contagion from the novel coronavirus so stayed away from the polls.
“There have been challenges today,” Lee acknowledged, at a press conference after polls closed in northwest Florida at 8 p.m. EDT. But she called the problems “isolated” in a state with nearly 6,000 precincts and commended supervisors of elections for “professionalism in addressing concerns.”
Lee said several Palm Beach County precincts opened late and three never opened at all because poll workers did not show up as expected. Another incident with a poll worker in Lee County required law enforcement to close a precinct.
“Some voters were not able to vote at their originally assigned precinct,’’ Lee said, adding that those voters were given “an opportunity to cast a ballot, either at an alternate precinct designated by their supervisor of election, or by going to the supervisors office to cast a vote by mail ballot in person.”
When asked if she was confident that everyone who wanted to vote was given an opportunity to vote, Lee responded: “Yes.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lee rejected repeated requests from voting advocates to provide flexibility in primary-day voting, including refusing to extend the vote-by-mail ballot deadlines despite guidance from public health officials that people stay away from group gatherings to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
A coalition of racial justice organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court late Monday, alleging the state’s failure to extend vote-by-mail deadlines, adjust early voting dates, and expand mail ballot transmission options in the face of the spread of COVID-19 violated the constitutional rights of Florida voters under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The coalition, which also includes the Advancement Project, the Dream Defenders, New Florida Majority, Organize Florida, Demos and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, asked the court to extend Florida’s vote-by-mail deadlines for the primary to March 27.
On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District denied the request for a preliminary injunction, but left an opening, saying it would issue further instructions after the primary, said Kira Romero-Craft, attorney for LatinoJustice PRLDEF in Orlando.
“At this hour, with voting in progress, a temporary restraining order would be adverse to the public interest,” wrote Judge Robert Hinkle Tuesday morning. “A separate order will be entered setting procedures going forward.”
“We’re not very clear what that means but we’re very hopeful,’’ Romero-Craft said.
She said poll watchers throughout the state found that “everything that we allege in our complaint is happening.”
“We are seeing no lines, very low voter turnout, elderly folks in different parts of the state have been told not to vote, and a lot of those folks don’t know they have an option to get an affidavit and have someone else get them a ballot,’’ she said. “There is undoubtedly an effect on the folks that wanted to vote and exercise their right to vote.”
Hinkle acknowledged in his order that “the factual basis for the lawsuit and motion is substantial: the ongoing COVID-19 national healthcare emergency. Going to the polls may risk infection of individual poll workers and voters and thus may advance the spread of the disease, increasing the already-substantial risk that the nation’s healthcare capacity will eventually be overrun.”
He noted that “some voters are at greater risk than others. And the steps that responsible individuals have already taken to reduce the risk of spreading the virus — for example, by leaving college campuses — will make it difficult or impossible for some to vote.”
Under the emergency power authorized by the governor’s executive order signed last week, DeSantis and the secretary of state have the power to revise voting laws to accommodate voters in the face of a crisis.
The hurricane precedent
After Hurricane Michael, for example, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order allowing counties to provide mail ballots to a voter’s immediate family member on Election Day without the need for a signed affidavit declaring an emergency.
Lee told the Herald/Times that “Hurricane Michael created a lack of adequate physical infrastructure to serve as polling place locations and for the pick-up and return of vote-by-mail ballots.”
But in this crisis, Lee said her agency “worked with emergency management officials to help ensure that supervisors had the necessary resources for sanitization and cleaning at polling places to provide for the safety of voters on Election Day so they may cast their ballots.”
She urged people who didn’t want to vote in person to rely on the state’s system for obtaining an absentee ballot on Tuesday, which required two signed affidavits.
She explained that if voters have been ordered to self-isolate, they may designate someone else to pick up their vote-by-mail ballot for them, but by law they must complete a signed affidavit in order for the ballot to be released. In addition, the person who returns a ballot on behalf of someone else, must also complete an affidavit.
However, it is in the supervisor of elections’ discretion whether to grant people emergency ballots.
Chiraag Bains, director of legal strategies at Demos, one of the lawsuit plaintiffs, said poll watchers called counties to ask what they are doing for people with emergencies.
“The response has been disturbing,’’ Bains said. “When we called Miami-Dade County, we were told ‘We are not doing that.’ At the very least, there is major confusion about even the availability of the narrow and burdensome emergency voting procedure that does exist.”
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and Ohio have postponed their presidential primaries to avoid the possible spread of the virus. Ohio had been scheduled to vote Tuesday. Wyoming has suspended the in-person portion of its April caucuses and is asking voters to mail or drop off ballots. Other states are weighing similar options. Voting in Florida, Illinois and Arizona continued Tuesday as scheduled.
Light turnout
At the governor’s recommendation, local elections officials moved voting precincts out of nursing homes and assisted living facilities to protect residents from the contagion. But Florida Democratic Party officials said state and local officials failed to notify voters of their relocated precincts, so they took it upon themselves to reach voters.
The result was “voter turnout has ranged from light to medium, as expected,’’ Lee said.
“We are in unprecedented times,’’ she said. “And what we have seen today is an incredible exercise of cooperation between Florida’s voters, our election workers and our supervisors of elections to ensure that Florida’s elections were conducted safely and securely across our state.”
The last-minute lawsuit from the activists asks the state to update its vote-by-mail process by:
▪ Extending the deadline for people to request a vote-by-mail ballot to March 27;
▪ Allowing voters to request ballots be sent to them via email or fax consistent with military and overseas voter procedures;
▪ Allowing third-party individuals to collect ballots from those utilizing vote-by-mail and drop off these ballots at the drop boxes mentioned above; and
▪ Allowing voters to submit their ballot via fax.
Lee has neither responded nor commented on the lawsuit.
Miami Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 1:42 PM.
