The Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE) concurs with the statements below and OPPOSES SB956, being rushed through the legislature now.

This bill should be KILLED, not amended. It disenfranchises voters, hurts the citizen initiative processs, opens the floodgates for out-of-state-contributions to campaigns, and gives too much power to the Secretary of State.

Please let your readers know they should contact their Representative and Senator to VOTE NO on SB956.

Thank you,

Kindra Muntz, President

Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE)

Co-Founder, Florida Voters Coalition

Member, VoteTrustUSA Leaders

Member, RoundTableOnVoting

safevote@comcast.net

www.safevote.org

941.497.1764

MEMORANDUM

DATE:             April 16, 2009

TO:                  Editors

FROM:            Brad Ashwell, Florida PIRG

RE:                  Dangerous elections legislation (SB 956)

We are writing to urge you to editorialize in strong opposition to a very dangerous piece of elections legislation – Senate Bill 956.  While there are many important issues currently under debate in the Legislature, none should be of greater significance to your readers than SB-956.  If passed, this measure would harm voters in a number of ways, including but not limited to the following:

Significantly diminish the total number of registered voters

Make it virtually impossible for citizens to have a direct impact on specific issues that they feel are not being addressed by the legislature

Severely – if not completely – restrict the activities of non-partisan election protection programs which solve many Election Day problems by providing critical legal assistance to voters

Punish voters who have moved

Allow political committees formed in other states to operate in Florida without complying with Florida registration and reporting requirements

Prevent eligible citizens from registering to vote

SB-956 would hurt third party voter registration efforts by removing current limits on fines, creating criminal penalties and other additional burdens.

SB-956 requires third party voter registration groups to register all volunteers with the Division of Supervisors of Elections who will create a database. This creates yet another burden on third party groups and could open up members of groups to harassment by those who take issue with a certain organization. It would also have a fiscal impact at a time where we should be spending tax dollars very carefully.

SB-956 requires third party groups to turn in signed voter applications within 48 hours of the signature which will be extremely difficult for many groups – especially those whose operations are composed primarily or solely of volunteers.

SB-956 imposes criminal penalties on third party voter registration groups and volunteer groups orchestrating voter registration drives. This is excessive and unnecessary.

In the end these changes are likely to significantly diminish the numbers of registered voters which should be the exact opposite goal of this legislative body.

SB-956 will make it much harder for grassroots groups to exercise their constitutional right to propose ballot initiatives, while potentially disenfranchising those who innocently sign petitions.

If a signature gatherer violates the law and their registration is invalidated the petitions signed by innocent voters should not be invalidated as well. Under SB-956 petitions will be invalidated if a paid petition circulator is found violating the law. This is unnecessary and will likely lead to voters being disenfranchised even with a notification requirement.

SB-956 creates registration and training requirements for petition gatherers with vague language leaving much up to DOS rulemaking in terms of the location, frequency and cost.

SB-956 removes a 150-day limit on initiative revocations and encourages special interest driven well-financed revocation campaigns by giving them an unlimited amount of time to revoke petitions. The 150-day limit on revocation petitions should be maintained.

Under SB-956 petition circulators will have to pay to cover the cost of the state's training program. This is an economically discriminatory requirement. To require an individual to pay to cover a state mandated qualification expense merely to apply for a job will disqualify some signature collectors.

SB-956 should not shorten the time a signed petition is valid from 4 to 2 years. It is already incredibly difficult for campaigns to gather the high number of petitions necessary to place a question on the ballot within the allotted time. This change will make it virtually impossible for citizens to have a direct impact on specific issues that they feel are not being addressed by the legislature.  

SB-956 will restrict election protection efforts which solve many problems on Election Day.

SB-956 would severely– if not completely -- restrict the ability of non-partisan election protection programs which solve many Election Day problems by providing critical legal assistance to Florida’s voters at the polls by including “legal advice” as a form of “solicitation’ and then changing current law to prohibit solicitation within 100 feet of the voting line.

SB-956 does not address how polling places will enforce a no-solicitation zone based on a moving voting line. The bill creates a constantly shifting zone that would be impossible to enforce.

The bill would also ban “solicitation by audio and video” methods, which could prevent voters from talking to Election hotlines while waiting in line to vote.

SB-956 weakens campaign finance law, makes lawmakers less accountable to the public and lessens transparency in the funding of political ads.

SB-956 will allow political parties to spend an unlimited amount on communications and office expenses for a candidate by not counting these funds towards contribution limits.

SB-956 says that candidate polls performed by the state or county executive committee for political parties do not count as a contribution to a candidate. This will enhance the ability of political parties to select party favorites making more difficult for unknown candidates to competitively participate in races.  

SB-956 removes an explicit prohibition on “leadership funds.” This will allow members with power to use funds to curry favor with other members much easier than they can currently can and will ultimately mean that lawmakers with control of leadership funds will have more influence on Senators or Representatives than their constituents.

SB-956 will decrease transparency in political ads by allowing party funded ads to list an abbreviation rather than the party name. We need more information about who is funding political ads – not less.

SB-956 will eliminate voters’ ability to fill out a change of address and vote a regular ballot on Election Day.

Citizens currently have the right to update their new address and vote a regular ballot on Election Day. This law will punish voters who have moved, pushing them into the already crowded early voting lines. Voters will be forced to vote provisionally, creating a backlog of provisional ballots that canvassing boards must sort through, causing more votes not to be counted.

SB-956 will lead to more shadowy campaign committees with even less transparency.

SB-956 allows political committees formed in other states to operate in FL without complying with Florida registration and reporting requirements.

SB-956 further restricts the list of acceptable ID’s for voter registration and identification at the polls.

Retirement center identification and neighborhood association identifications are no longer valid with this bill.  This eliminates the only free forms of ID that are currently valid and proposes no acceptable alternatives.

This means that eligible citizens will be prevented from registering to vote and that properly registered voters will not be able to exercise their right on Election Day or they will have to use provisional ballots which are associated with many problems.

_____________________

Author's Website: www.safevote.org

Author's Bio: Kindra Muntz formed the nonpartisan Political Action Committee, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE) in January, 2006 to preserve freedom and democracy through verified elections, after two years of research on the problems of electronic voting. As President of SAFE, Kindra spearheaded the petition drive for a county charter amendment for voter verified paper ballots and mandatory, random audits of election results, that passed in Sarasota County, Florida, in November, 2006 with 74,000 votes from people of all political parties. After continued opposition by Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, and the Sarasota County Commissioners, the charter amendment was overturned at the State Appellate Court in October of 2007. SAFE appealed that decision at the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee May 7, 2008, and is awaiting their ruling. In addition to the countywide effort for verified elections with paper ballots and mandatory audits of election results, Kindra co-founded the Florida Voters Coalition (FVC) in 2007 with three election reform activists from other Florida counties, to press for a statewide bill for paper ballots that passed in 2007. That bill provided for paper ballots, but failed to provide statistically significant audits, which are critical to verified elections. The FVC pressed unsuccessfully for strengthened statewide audit legislation in 2008, and will continue their efforts in coming years. For Kindra's work she received the 2007 Jim Barrett Social Justice Award of the Florida District Unitarian Universalist Association and the 2008 Nelson Poynter Award for Civil Liberties (along with the other three co-founders of the Florida Voters Coalition) from the ACLU Foundation of Florida. She continues to work with partners statewide and nationwide to effect needed election reforms in Florida and around the country. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, Kindra was a volunteer Florida State Representative to Washington with VerifiedVoting.org on behalf of the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (HR550), now HR811. She became a member of VoteTrustUSA Leaders in 2006. She has spoken on a voting reform panel in Washington, appeared on CNN and Fox News, and spoken before the Florida Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on the problems of electronic voting. Kindra worked in manufacturing management at General Electric Company's Aircraft Engine Group in Lynn, Massachsetts for 18 years, and received their Managerial Award in 1990. She was a retail broker at Merrill Lynch for five years, before retiring and moving to Venice, where she is active in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice, immediate past President of the Southwest Cluster of UU Congregations, and Secretary of the Board of the public charter Island Village Montessori School. Kindra is a graduate of Harvard University and Secretary of her Class of 1965 at Radcliffe.

www.opednews.com/articles/Speak-Out-Against-FL-Senat-by-Kindra-Muntz-090417-658.html