Judge Moving Ahead on Suit Challenging Election Procedures

By: Catherine Wilson

A federal judge warned Friday (2/15/02), that he intends to stay on track for a trial in August on a voter lawsuit challenging the way Florida ran the flawed November 2000 presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold cited "the importance and immediacy of the claims" as he rejected attempts by two state agencies and a company that helped shrink voter lists to get out of the case.

The NAACP and four civil liberties groups are suing the state, several counties and the contractor over procedures for voter registration, voter lists, and balloting.

"I am on a track for trial, and I want to be sure everyone understands that", the judge said. He added it was unclear to him whether reforms enacted last year eliminated the need for the lawsuit, as the state argued.

Assistant Attorney General George Waas argued the new state law was "a major undertaking born of a major cataclysmic election" and should be tested to see if it corrected the problems.

"New Florida legislation has significantly changed the waterfront as far as this case", said Raymond Bergan, attorney for ChoicePoint. The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company delivered names to be stripped from county voter rolls and remains in the case as a defendant.

But voters' attorney Anita Hodgkiss responded that voters "should not be forced to wait through another election to wait to see if the state has fixed it".

Voters complained that they were turned away for a variety of reasons from busy polls in an election ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Many said they were improperly labeled ex-felons who were ineligible to vote, and others said their registration forms were never processed.

"I felt like, as a citizen and a voter, my voice was heard today", Tony Payne of Fort Lauderdale said after attending the hearing. He said a co-worker who had never received as much as a traffic ticket was listed as an ex-felon, and said several friends were turned away by poll workers.

The judge noted he rarely rules from the bench but decided to do that in the voter lawsuit to show his "serious intent" to keep the case moving.

Gold was addressing procedural motions by the state Highway Safety and Children and Families departments to be dropped from the suit. They were accused of violating the federal motor-voter law by failing to process voter registration forms filled out at their offices.

"This is really a victory for the plaintiffs and the voters of the state of Florida", said Hodgkiss of the Washington-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, who represented voters at the hearing.

Attorneys for the state and the company had no comment afterward on the ruling against them. Bob Sanchez, Highway Safety spokesman, said it wasn't unusual for dismissal motions to be rejected.

Gold must decide whether to give voters another chance to amend their lawsuit before the case moves forward.

In a sign of progress, Leon County, which includes the state capital, settled its portion of the lawsuit this week by agreeing to change some of its procedures and submit a plan for more modifications in 90 days.