7/28/2006
LEE COUNTY: A little over a month away from the primary election, there are local organizations hitting the streets trying to register people to vote. But many organizations are not doing that because of new rules and the possible fines for breaking the rules.
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The organizations are now being held accountable because of the fraudulent activity that took place in 2004.
"In other areas of the state they found a lot of the groups were not turning the applications in timely. The people were not getting registered because they were turned in after the books closed. They were incomplete. Some of them were fraudulent. So the legislature said that we've got to do something to get it under control," said Harrington.
The new laws state:
* Organizations must now register everyone working day to day operations
* They must submit quarterly reports identifying where and when registration drives were held
* For every application they take, they must account for where it is now
Breaking the law can carry stiff fines. Once you fill out the application, the organization has 10 days to turn it in. If they neglect to turn it in, the fine is $250. If the application is turned in after the set deadline, the fine is $500. If the application is lost altogether, the fine is $5,000 per application.
http://www.nbc-2.com/Articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=8147&z=3&p=I guess the Repugs figured most new voters would register has DEMS this year and they need to do whatever they can to prevent that from happening.