|
From: Steven Ertelt Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 10:31 AM To: campaigns@topica.com Subject: Voter Group Sues Fla. Officials ------- Get news/information about campaigns and elections with the Campaigns email list. Go to http://www.topica.com/lists/campaigns to subscribe. ------- Voter Group Sues Fla. Officials
MIAMI (AP) - A Florida voter rights group sued state officials Wednesday, warning that parts of an election reform law could return the state to its ``Jim Crow'' past. The plaintiffs object to a list of voter responsibilities that will be posted at polling places along with a list of voter rights. They said the signs amount to literacy tests and would discourage minority voters. Signs will direct voters, among other things, to ``study and know candidates and issues,'' ``bring proper identification to the polling station'' and check their completed ballots for accuracy. ``We believe that the voter responsibilities section of that act is a step so far backward as to be a literacy test,'' said JoNel Newman, a lawyer with the Florida Equal Voting Rights Project, a project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Lawmakers overhauled the state's election laws last spring in the wake of the disputed presidential election. Florida's voting system endured intense scrutiny after a razor-thin election forced a recount and gave George W. Bush the presidency. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Monroe County Elections Supervisor Harry Sawyer Jr. are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Neither immediately responded to calls seeking comment. The group, called the Florida Voters League, Inc., filed the suit on behalf of Charles Major Jr., a black voting-rights activist from Key West. The lawsuit also targets new procedures for removing ex-felons from voter rolls, saying the burden of determining which voters are ex-felons falls to county officials, who would force voters to prove their eligibility. ==^================================================================ T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
||