http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-novote0108oct01,0,6794080.storyID-match law stalls 5,000 voter applicationsAaron Deslatte and Mary Shanklin | Sentinel Staff Writers
October 1, 2008
TALLAHASSEE - Three weeks after Florida began enforcing a controversial law to require tougher ID matches for would-be voters, registration applications from more than 5,000 Floridians have been held up, at least temporarily.
In Orange County, just more than 50 percent of the 672 challenged registrations were from Democrats and about 10 percent were from Republicans, with the rest showing an unknown party or no party affiliation, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis. Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning opted earlier this month to start enforcing the law that was enacted three years ago but litigated by civil-rights and voting groups until this summer.
The "No Match, No Vote" law flags Floridians trying to register to vote if their drivers license or Social Security number doesn't match with government databases. The law then requires the state or county officials to try to notify would-be voters to clear up the problem.
Traveling in Kuwait on Tuesday, Browning said during a conference call that the ratio of rejections in Orange County made sense, given the surge of Democratic voter registrations this election year. More than three-fourths of the 44,521 who registered in Orange from January through August were Democrats, records show. "I think the same would be true if it were a Republican year," Browning said, adding, "We are not in the voter-suppression business."
But Democrats said the numbers proved what they've suspected -- that the law's enforcement would keep more Democrats than Republicans off the rolls, in part because new Democratic voters are more likely to be minorities and poor.
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