The Advancement Project and other 501c3 groups have been meeting with SOEs around the state discussing problems with provisional ballots, voter registrations, early voting etc. They are working to create legislation for 2010 to address the problematic issues uncovered in their public records requests from the November 2008 election. They did a comprehensive request to determine the cause of rejected provisional ballots and voter registration applications.

 

The Miami Dade report was extremely informative as to details of why provisional ballots were rejected. The project has made some terrific suggestions for legislation this year including counting provisional ballots for those races from otherwise eligible voters even if cast in the wrong precincts and other proposals based on their research in Florida.

 

Attached is the Broward County Report analyzing Provisional Ballot and Voter Registration problems. The Advancement Project conclusion is that there is a great need for better Poll Worker training and better access to State Voter Registration systems in the precincts so that eligible voters in Broward are not discriminated by no fault of their own. They found there is also a need to streamline the Voter Registration application as FL will not register voters if any boxes are incomplete.

 

There was a meeting today with the Advancement Project and others to attempt to build a collaborative relationship with Dr. Snipes as they have done with other civic engagement groups and Supervisors across the State of Florida. In fact, Carolyn Thompson, the FL Advocate told me that the Advancement Project will be helping Jerry Holland the SOE from Duval County write their Poll Worker training manuals for Nov. 2010.

 

The goal of the meeting was to....

 

1. To discuss the provisional ballot memo - what has improved what has not
2. Discuss our suggested administrative changes
3. Discuss our legislative agenda to find common ground

___________________________________________________________

 

I will be posting more information regarding the Advancement Project proposals and keep our group up to date regarding election related legislation this year. Everyone is encouraged to make suggestions for new legislation you can envision and to contact your State Legislators to make it a reality.

 

The Broward Election Reform Coalition will participate with other organizations to help mobilize citizens to realize progressive proposals this year as we have done in the past.

 

For more information about the work Advancement Project is doing in Florida and how your group or you can help contact:

 

Carolyn Thompson
Advocate, Voter Protection Program
Advancement Project
1220 L Street, NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20005
(786) 278-2361
(202) 728-9558 fax

 

The Moderator.