Voting law hearing begins

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cvoter26jul26,0,4521162.story?coll=sfla-news-broward



Voting law hearing begins

Unions, advocacy groups say measure violates their right to free speech

By Vanessa Blum
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted July 26 2006

A new state law forced several major advocacy groups and labor unions to cancel planned 2006 voter registration drives in Florida over fear that they could face hefty fines, organization leaders said Tuesday during a hearing in Miami federal court.

Cynthia Hall, president of the Florida chapter of the AFL-CIO, said unions belonging to her organization called off voter registration activities because of possible fines ranging from $250 to $5,000 per mishandled application.

"It could get very costly and literally bankrupt us, if just one person makes mistakes," Hall said.

Under the legislation, which took effect Jan. 1, organizations and their volunteers must pay fines of $250 for each voter registration application submitted more than 10 days after it's collected, $500 for each application submitted after the voter registration deadline, and $5,000 for each application not submitted.

[november3rd]

1. What about Ohio?

What's the news from the other bastion of American democracy, the Buckeye state? I hear they are scaring Democrats out of registrations, too.

It looks like the drive has to now participate in simply bringing busloads of potential voters to the post office to register there by themselves.