April 23, 2009, Lakeland Ledger
In a session dominated by huge funding shortages - at
a time when even the most essential government services are facing cutbacks
- the Florida Legislature appears poised to approve needlessly complex,
potentially costly revisions to voting law.
Why? How did such relatively low-priority legislation manage to squeeze
itself into a session hard-pressed for time to grapple with such essential
issues as tax reform and renewable energy policy? What is driving the
ill-advised election measure?
Before state lawmakers even try to answer those questions, they should
shelve the legislation and focus on more urgent matters.
The bill (SB 956 in the Senate, House companion PCB-EDCA 09-08) is
72 pages and springs a wealth of bad ideas on the public. It would bring
changes ranging from tighter voter identification requirements to onerous
petition-gathering regulations. It would impose new restrictions on
election observers, ban helpers from areas near voter lines, weaken
certain campaign finance disclosures and strengthen the secretary of
state's authority regarding certain election administration issues.VOTER
PARTICIPATION DISCOURAGEDThe proposed revisions of the election code
range from marginally defensible to utterly unnecessary. Many of them
will increase enforcement costs - even as billions are cut from the
budget.
The chief sponsor of the bill, Republican Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla,
says the measure is aimed at stopping voter fraud. But there is no evidence
of broad-scale abuses by voters.
There have been problems with hired petition-signature gatherers, but
this legislation goes too far the other way. It imposes regulations
so burdensome as to discourage voter participation. A better balance
is needed to protect citizens' rights.
The measure's weakened standards on certain aspects of campaign finance
could hurt the cause of transparent elections. For instance, as the
Florida Public Interest Research Group points out, SB 956 would permit
out-of-state political committees to operate here without adhering to
Florida's registration and reporting requirements.
Sadly, Sen. J. D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, chairman of the Senate Ethics
and Elections Committee, supported the bill in a committee vote last
week.
State elections are far from perfect. But improving the process is
best accomplished through deliberative, inclusive and cooperative input.
This legislation, by contrast, swoops in on the element of surprise,
imposing new costs to fight nonexistent problems. Florida already has
enough real crises, and too little money to address them.
