Florida NAACP v. Browning
Court Cases

– 04/03/08

On September 17, 2007, the Brennan Center and other voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s requirement that the driver’s license or Social Security number on a registration form be verified before a voter can be registered to vote.  A hearing was held in federal court on December 11, 2007.

This error-laden practice converts an administrative recordkeeping measure to a burden on voters, upending federal laws designed to ensure that bureaucratic mistakes no longer disenfranchised eligible citizens.  Records indicate that the practice has already unduly delayed or denied the registration of more than 76,000 Florida citizens, with more than 14,000 still blocked from the rolls, and could disenfranchise far more in 2008 if not struck down.

The Florida law is similar to a practice the Brennan Center successfully challenged in federal court in Washington State last year, in the first lawsuit in the country on this issue.  Like the practice invalidated in Washington, Florida prohibits elections officials from placing eligible citizens on the rolls unless they clear a series of extra bureaucratic hurdles largely dependent on “matching” registration information on a new statewide voter list with information in the state motor vehicle or Social Security systems.  A citizen registering as “Bill” might not “match” if his Social Security number is issued under “William”.  A woman’s married name might not match against a database where she is listed under her maiden name.  Haitian-American and other Latino citizens who use compound names like “Jean-Robert Martin” or “Gabriel García Márquez” may find themselves with part of their first or last name listed as a middle name and unable to be matched.

These sorts of common errors or inconsistencies make “matching” unreliable, jeopardizing the status of new voters in Florida, and subjecting these voters to undue and burdensome bureaucratic requirements to climb out of a registration limbo.  Moreover, some immaterial mistakes by voters become entirely insurmountable hurdles under Florida’s rule: an eligible voter who happens to swap two digits of her driver’s license number on the registration form will be blocked from casting a valid vote, no matter what kind of other documentation she is able to show.

Plaintiffs, including the Florida branch of the NAACP, the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, and the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on September 17, 2007.  An amended complaint was filed on September 21, 2007.  They are represented by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law; Advancement Project; Project Vote; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; and Greenberg Traurig LLP.

On December 18, 2007, a federal judge enjoined the Florida law, finding that the law has resulted in "actual harm to real individuals." More than 14,000 otherwise eligible citizens were placed back on the rolls in time for Florida's presidential primary. The judge's order was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and on April 3, 2008, the appellate court reversed, holding that the Florida law was not preempted. The case now returns to the trial court for resolution of the remaining claims, including the claim that the challenged law unconstitutionally deprives Florida citizens of their right to vote.

District Court Papers

Appeals Court Papers

Press Clips

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Voter Lists and Databases, Voting Technology