October 18, 2012
This week, a three-judge federal panel issued an order in State of Florida v. the United States, ruling that Florida’s changes to early voting hours under HB 1355 could not be precleared under the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which protects racial and language minority voters in five Florida Counties (Hillsborough, Collier, Monroe, Hendry, and Hardy). Today, Project Vote Legislative Director Estelle Rogers issued the following statement in response:
“After a year-long process, the federal court in Washington, DC has ordered five Florida counties—including Hillsborough, which contains the City of Tampa—to continue providing 96 hours of early voting in the upcoming election.
Research has shown that early voting is utilized disproportionately by racial minorities, and we are gratified that the court understood that Florida’s early voting change under HB 1355, which permitted counties to offer as little as 48 hours of early voting, would have an especially significant impact on racial minorities in the state.
We are grateful that Florida’s inclusion in the VRA preclearance process calls attention to the disparate impact of rollbacks in early voting, which have become an unfortunate legislative trend this year. It is regrettable that minorities in Florida’s other 62 counties, which are not subject to the preclearance process, may still be affected by the reduced early voting hours allowed under HB 1355.
The preclearance process—established under the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, and reauthorized as recently as 2006—was designed to ensure that jurisdictions with a history of racially discriminatory voting practices can not make changes to election law without having those changes come under special scrutiny by the Department of Justice or the federal court. The continued efficacy of the VRA’s preclearance process has itself become a political football this year, with the Supreme Court likely to take up the issue in the coming term.
This case underscores the vital importance of the VRA preclearance process, and the necessity of continuing to closely monitor jurisdictions with a proven history of racial discrimination in voting.”