Clearwater, Florida – As the senate election bill SB 600 heads to the floor for a final vote on Wednesday, voting rights advocates are flagging the amended language in the bill that creates a harmful barrier to some voters to cast a ballot. Local residents and members of the Florida Consumer Action Network, Awake Pinellas, PICO, Project Vote, and the ACLU will gather outside of Senator Jack Latvala’s office (26133 US Highway 19 North, Clearwater, Florida) at 2 p.m. on Tuesday April 23 to call for changes to the elections reform package, specifically language which hurts elderly and language minority voters by limiting who can provide assistance to them when casting their ballot.
The language would prohibit any citizen from assisting more than 10 voters in any election and require that the volunteer knew the voter prior to the election. It would prohibit those who work at assisted living facilities from assisting the entirety of their facility if there are more than 10 voters, or force them to choose which voters to assist and which requests for assistance they may legally be obligated to refuse. Many elderly voters depending on assistance would be left without help.
Also impacted would be language minority voters, including Florida’s large Spanish and Creole speaking populations. As supervisors of elections struggle to recruit enough staff members who are proficient in these languages, they are largely dependent on the community volunteers willing to assist voters at the polls.
While some large counties do print the ballots in other languages as required, not all voters are reading proficient in their native tongue. “Interestingly, Haitian Creole–while spoken for centuries–is a newly written language, having only been standardized in 1979. Many people cannot read Creole and would still need assistance at the polls,” said Tim Heberlein, of the Florida Consumer Action Network.
“The language in this bill would limit assistance to anyone with a disability or the inability to read or write,” Heberlein continued. “The 10-person limit would prevent volunteers from assisting more than 10 people who they knew prior to voting during each election cycle. Volunteers provide assistance to everyone, they don’t just pick 10 people. Being a volunteer means we are largely helping people we’ve never met. Our goal is to help everyone to participate in the election process.”
By removing the ability of community groups to offer much needed assistance to these voters, HB 7013/SB 600 could leave voters across the state with the inability to effectively cast a ballot, leading to delays and confusion.
Read Project Vote’s testimony here.
What: Press Conference opposing harmful language in SB 600 (Senator Latvala)
When: Tuesday April 23rd, 2013 at 2 PM
Where: Senator Latvala’s District Office (26133 U.S. Highway 19 North Suite 201 Clearwater, FL 33763)
Who: Community leaders, Florida Consumer Action Network, American Civil Liberties Union, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO Florida), Project Vote, Awake Pinellas