Because of a civil rights law, election officials in five Florida counties are at work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Early voting for the Jan. 31 GOP primary begins Monday in five Florida counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe.
For the rest of the state, the early voting period gets under way next week.
Last year, the state Legislature changed a number of state voting laws, including reducing the early voting period from 14 to eight days. However, the state continues to await a federal ruling on implementing the changes in Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe counties.
Because of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the state needs federal preclearance to enact the changes for jurisdictions in which less than 50 percent of the voting-age citizens were registered to vote or voted in the presidential election, had a non-English-speaking population of more than 5 percent, and provided voting materials only in English.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, has announced plans to hold a field hearing in Tampa on Jan. 27 to examine the changes to the voting law.
For more than half of the life of our Republic, a majority of Americans were not allowed to vote. Fortunately, we learned from these mistakes and expanded the franchise and reach of our democracy though six constitutional amendments, Durbin stated in a release. Worryingly, a spate of recently passed state voting laws seemed designed to restrict voting by making it harder for millions of disabled, young, minority, rural, elderly, homeless, and low-income Americans to vote. Protecting the right of every citizen to vote and ensuring that our elections are fair and transparent are not Democratic or Republican values, they are American values.
In addition to reducing the early voting period from 14 days to eight, the changes also require third parties signing up voters to register with the state and submit each application within 48 hours of the card being signed, and for people who need to change their address on the day of the election to fill out provisional ballots.
Critics of the changes say the aim of the new rules is to suppress Democratic votes in next years presidential election. Proponents of the change said the intent was to ensure the accuracy of voter rolls and make early voting more accessible.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
