A federal judge has rejected a request from the Florida Democratic Party to change some voting rules in advance of the November 8th general election.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker denied the emergency motion during a Thursday morning hearing in Tallahassee.
Democrats were concerned that some new voters would not have their registration applications processed before early voting starts next week.
This means some citizens may be forced to vote provisional ballots, which require greater scrutiny from election officials.
In his ruling, Walker said there is no evidence to suggest the state is intentionally processing the applications slowly.
Florida Democratic Party attorney Kevin Hamilton was disappointed with the ruling. “When you vote a provisional ballot, it’s not counted unless the canvassing board approves your ballot,” said Hamilton.
Ron Labasky represents the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.He says allowing people to cast a normal ballot before the verification process takes place would be a bad idea.
“It would create a problem of an individual who was not eligible, not on the voter rolls, and cast a regular ballot at early voting or at a polling place not being scrutinized and voting illegally,” said Labasky.
Judge Walker pushed back the voter-registration deadline last week because of Hurricane Matthew, leaving a fairly short time between the end of voter registration and the beginning of early voting, which begins Monday in some parts of Florida, with the whole state having the opportunity to cast early ballots beginning October 29th.
