Arek Sarkissian

arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com; 850-559-7620

TALLAHASSEE — A U.S. District Court judge issued a rare but fiery order Saturday lambasting the Florida secretary of state's response to a lawsuit filed by the Florida Democratic Party to change rules for vote-by-mail ballots to prevent thousands of them from being tossed.

Judge Mark Walker wrote that Secretary of State Ken Detzner has one week to respond to the Oct. 3 lawsuit that seeks to allow voters who cast mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures to cast an updated ballot before the Nov. 8 election.

Detzner’s lawyer contends the Department of State is not the right agency to be sued and that the case should be dismissed.

“The mischief associated with the Florida Secretary of State’s shenanigans is that, assuming he is right, it doesn’t enable the proper party to be joined, thus disenfranchising thousands,” Walker wrote. “But this isn’t a game; this Court will not allow the Florida Secretary of State — a high-level officer of the State of Florida — to take a knee and deprive Florida citizens of their most precious right.”

In the 2012 general election, 2.38 million mail-in ballots were cast, or 28 percent of the total 8.5 million ballots counted, according to state elections data.

Under state law, mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures and those without any signatures are considered illegal.

But state law allows voters who cast ballots without signatures to recast their votes in time for Election Day.

Ballots that are determined by county supervisor of elections employees to have signatures that do not match signatures on file are balled up and thrown away, without any chance for voters to recast them, Walker said.

“In short, we’re not talking about a mere inconvenience or a minor barrier to voting; we’re talking about taking as many as 23,000 ballots, crumbling them into balls, and throwing them in the trash like dirty tissue, without any opportunity to cure,” he wrote.

Walker also decided to take the case under advisement and canceled a Monday hearing scheduled to determine a ruling. He instead ordered the state Democratic Party to issue a response by Sunday night.

Walker already ruled in favor of another request by the state Democratic Party this week to extend the deadline for voter registration until Oct. 18 due to Hurricane Matthew. Gov. Rick Scott had denied the extension.

The judge found that state law may not provide Scott with the power to move voter registration due to an emergency, but the governor still should have done so in the spirit of voters’ rights, Walker ruled.