Last year, Floridans enacted a voter registration law severely limiting the ability of third parties, like the League of Women Voters, to do the essential function of helping people register to vote. You might remember the case of Jill Cicciarelli, a high school teacher who ran afoul of the law when she started a voter registration drive to pre-register her students who would be eligible to vote by the election.

The law that Cicciarelli came up against, and the fact that the state considered pursuing her for helping students register, has had a severe chilling effect on voter registration in the state. Which is precisely what the Republican-controlled government intended.



The state’s new elections law — which requires groups that register voters to turn in completed forms within 48 hours or risk fines, among other things — has led the state’s League of Women Voters to halt its efforts this year. Rock the Vote, a national organization that encourages young people to vote, began an effort last week to register high school students around the nation — but not in Florida, over fears that teachers could face fines. And on college campuses, the once-ubiquitous folding tables piled high with voter registration forms are now a rarer sight. Florida, which reminded the nation of the importance of every vote in the disputed presidential election in 2000 when it reported that George W. Bush had won by 537 votes, is now seeing a significant drop-off in new voter registrations. In the months since its new law took effect in July, 81,471 fewer Floridians have registered to vote than during the same period before the 2008 presidential election, according to an analysis of registration data by The New York Times. [...] [N]ew registrations dropped sharply in some areas where the voting-age population has been growing, the analysis found, including Miami-Dade County, where they fell by 39 percent, and Orange County, where they fell by a little more than a fifth. Some local elections officials said that the lack of registration drives by outside groups has been a factor in the decline.

One county, Volusia, reported that registrations had dropped by a fifth, largely because the League of Women Voters had ceased registration drives, as had the five universities in the county. The law seems to be hitting precisely the population that Republicans want to keep out of the polls: new, young voters.

And, of course, minorities. This story relates the experience of Sabu L. Williams, the president of the Okaloosa County Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., who registered two voters and got a threatening letter from Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning for not getting his forms in within the prescribed 48 hours. The letter went on to say that "any future violation of the third-party voter registration law may result in my referral of the matter to the attorney general for an enforcement action." It's good to know Florida's coffers are so flush that Browning can take the time and resources to send intimidating letters over two errant registrations.

The League of Women Voters of Florida, Rock the Vote, and the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, filed suit against the law in December, attempting to block it. But pending the outcome of that case, groups are ceasing their efforts.

For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.

