Central Florida Republicans push through elections crackdown

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Central Florida Republicans push through elections crackdown
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 17, 2009 9:47:47 AM

TALLAHASSEE – Judging by the reception from Democrats, a House Republican elections package designed to crack down on signature-gathering groups unveiled late last night is going to cause some fireworks over the last two weeks of session.

The sweeping elections package was rammed through the House Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Council Friday morning in an unusually rushed hearing where public debate was cut off and the minority-party was given three minutes to debate it.

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, is similar to a version quickly shuttled through a Senate committee Thursday, and is largely intended to crack down on third-party interest groups that attempt to gather signatures to amend Florida’s constitution.

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Among many changes, the bill requires the groups to register their signature-gatherers with the state and report where they’re operating every three months. Voter-registration groups would have five days to turn in their registrations after they’re collected (the Senate requires a 48-hour turnaround on submitting registrations).

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The bill would also require county supervisors to more frequently purge their voter files of voters that cannot be verified. And perhaps most interestingly, it repeals a law passed in 2007 that allows state officeholders to seek federal office without resigning their state seats. The exemption was enacted that year so Gov. Charlie Crist could run on a presidential ticket without resigning, but the change could force several state senators considering federal office in 2010 to re-think their options.

More: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/04/central-florida-republicans-push-through-elections-crackdown.html