In Volusia County thousands are newly registered, but may be challenged at polls

By Barb Shepherd and Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITERS

posted Oct 10, 2008 - 3:01:26pm

Volunteers have worked hard across Volusia County to sign up a tidal wave of new voters, but other forces are in play that could push back that surge.

On Oct. 7, Volusia County Elections Supervisor Ann McFall told a Chamber of Commerce group that 1,000 people had visited the Elections Office in Downtown DeLand the previous day, the deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 4 election.

Some of those people were volunteers turning in registrations they had collected.

"Between our headquarters and the Obama headquarters, we've had around 450 registrations in the DeLand area," Sylvia Perkins at Democratic Headquarters in DeLand said.

Shirley Patterson at DeLand's Republican Headquarters said around 20 people had come in to register Oct. 6. Two days earlier, GOP volunteers collected registrations in Downtown DeLand.

"We did get quite a few registrations at the Chili Cookoff," Patterson said.

McFall said a team of 45 people was expected to work until 10 p.m. Tuesday night entering new voters in the statewide database. The Elections Office has 33 regular employees.

As of Oct. 7, McFall said, between 5,000 and 6,000 new voters still needed to be entered before Oct. 17.

Since Jan. 1, the supervisor noted, 25,000 new voters have registered in Volusia County. They are "overwhelmingly" Democrats, she said.

While the surge of new voters is expected to help Democratic Sen. Barack Obama in his bid for the presidency, the Republican Party is mounting its own counter effort.

McFall told the Chamber group she expects the rights of anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 voters to be challenged in this election.

Vote challenges — when a person or group calls into question the right of a particular voter to cast a ballot — are not new. However, challenges used to happen at the polls on Election Day, and in recent years there have been few of them.

"Since 2004, I've probably seen two challenges to votes," McFall said.

Thanks to a new law passed by the Florida Legislature, she explained, groups interested in challenging voters now may do so up to 30 days before an election.

Once a voter's right to cast a ballot is challenged, McFall's office must attempt to notify the voter, and must flag the voter's name in the statewide database.

If the problem can't be straightened out at the supervisor's office before Election Day, the challenged voter will be required to vote a provisional ballot, then visit the Elections Office within 48 hours after the election to disprove the allegations of the challenge.

"One party, that we know of, is going to challenge every voter that's being foreclosed on," McFall said.

People whose homes are in foreclosure may change their addresses and forget to update their voter registrations. Political parties send letters to these people with instructions to the post office not to forward the mail. If the letters are returned to the sender, a challenge is filed, claiming the voter doesn't live where he or she is registered to vote.

"With our economic crisis," McFall said, "it's going to cause these challenges."

Voting-rights activists call it "caging."

McFall, a Republican, said afterward the party known to be doing the foreclosure challenges is the Republican Party. A call to the head of the Volusia County Republican Party was not returned.

Such activities have sparked lawsuits elsewhere in the country.

Two newspapers reported the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a federal lawsuit in Michigan over the Michigan Republican Party's plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the poll.

McFall's challenger for re-election to the supervisor job, Susan Pynchon, also spoke at the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce forum Oct. 7.

Pynchon said several factors are working against problem-free voting.

"I do have concerns about voter confusion, as well as this caging that's going on, then you add the exact-match law to that," Pynchon said. "There are all kinds of ways the political parties use to keep people from voting."

"Exact-match," or "voter verification," refer to a new law that affects voter-registration applications filed on or after Sept. 8, 2008.

The law is being implemented now, after a legal challenge and several modifications.

New voters must provide a Florida driver-license number, state identification-card number or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

The ID number is automatically cross-checked against the Florida driver-license database or the Social Security Administration database. If the number does not match, the Bureau of Voter Registration Services checks for typographical errors or a difference between a nickname on record and formal name on the voter registration, for example.

If the names still can't be matched, the applicant is instructed to mail in a photocopy of proper identification, or to show their identification in person at the Elections Office.

If proof is provided before the election, the voter becomes registered and is able to vote on a regular ballot. Otherwise, he or she may vote on a provisional ballot and has until 5 p.m. of the second day after the election to prove identity and have the ballot counted.

Voting activists say many new registrants who get notices about a problem with their application simply may not vote, or may run out of time to get to the Elections Office and solve the problem.

Pynchon questioned why the new law was put into effect now.

"The secretary of state could have put this law into effect in August," she told the Chamber group. "Now we are testing out this new law with this huge presidential election upon us."

McFall predicted voter registration, not vote-counting, will be the focus of legal challenges this year.

"The challenges in court are going to be voter registration," she said.

Voting-rights groups are advising voters to double-check the status of their registration before going to vote.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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