Florida’s new election law would disenfranchise minority voters, particularly blacks, and should be rejected, the ACLU and Project Vote said in a letter Monday to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Many of the provisions of HB 1355 will cause retrogression in minority voting strength in violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” said the letter, signed by Laughlin McDonald of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, Howard Simon and Randall Marshal of the Florida ACLU and Estelle Rogers of Project Vote. “There is also evidence that the provisions were adopted with a discriminatory purpose.”
According to the letter, black voters are more likely to vote early and to move than whites, meaning provisions cutting back on early voting and barring voters who move from one county to another from changing their addresses as the polling place would be discriminatory.
The law is already in effect in 62 of Florida’s 67 counties; the other five must first get preclearance from the Justice Department because of their history of discrimination.
The ACLU is suing to try to prevent the law from being used in the other 62 counties unless and until it’s precleared.
