A coalition of voting-rights advocates has filed suit, seeking to expand the availability of election ballots written in Spanish within Florida's counties.

It wants Brevard and 31 other counties to begin offering that option to Spanish speakers.

Local activist Samuel Lopez says it's only right to have ballots available in Spanish, in light of the growing population of Puerto Ricans and other Spanish speakers in Brevard and elsewhere.

"They need to do this as quickly as possible," said Lopez, a Melbourne resident, who is president of the civil rights, educational and cultural organization United Third Bridge and chairman of the board of the Florida Puerto Rican/Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "This should have been done a long time ago. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and Spanish is the second-largest language spoken in the United States."

Lopez sees not having Spanish-language ballots as "a way to suppress the vote."

Five civic engagement groups and Alachua County voter Marta Rivera recently filed suit against Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner and county supervisors of elections they claim are in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965’s requirement to provide bilingual voting materials and assistance — including ballots and poll worker support — for Puerto Rican-educated, Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens.

"Currently, many thousands of Puerto Rican and other Spanish-speaking Florida residents with limited English proficiency are being impeded from exercising their fundamental right to vote because elections in many parts of the state are conducted only in English," the groups said in a statement.

“At a time when Puerto Rican U.S. citizens are still reeling from the damage of Hurricane Maria and the fiscal crisis on the island, and are seeking to establish community throughout Florida, we must uphold the law and provide Puerto Ricans the Spanish-language assistance and materials as required under the Voting Rights Act,” Kira Romero-Craft, managing attorney at LatinoJustice’s Orlando office, said in a statement. “Democracy is at stake here. There is no viable excuse for these supervisors of elections to shirk their responsibilities to ensure that all citizens are able to vote effectively in the upcoming elections, especially in a state such as Florida.”

Florida has the second-highest Puerto Rican population of any U.S. state, and is home to hundreds of thousands of citizens of Puerto Rican heritage. Their number increased after Hurricane Maria brought a new wave of Puerto Ricans to the state, most of whom have a limited ability to speak or understand English.

In the statement, Stuart Naifeh, a senior counsel at Demos, said “forcing Spanish-speaking voters to vote in a language they don’t understand denies them a meaningful opportunity to be heard and undermines the integrity of our elections.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Gainesville, seeks certification as a class action on behalf of all Puerto Rican voters living in counties with large Puerto Rican populations and English-only elections.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the counties to translate their voting materials in time for the Nov. 6 election and to order Florida's secretary of state to ensure that the counties comply.

Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott said she could not comment in detail about the issue, citing the pending legal action.

In a prepared statement, Scott said: “I am aware of a pending lawsuit, but Brevard County is not a named party. To my knowledge only the secretary of state and Alachua County supervisor of elections have been served.”

In its statement, the coalition noted that, under federal law, people born in Puerto Rico after 1899 are U.S. citizens by birth, and, like other citizens, they are free to live wherever they like in the United States and are entitled to vote wherever they live.

Demos, LatinoJustice and some of the plaintiffs previously had demanded that counties provide bilingual voting material to voters.

Some Florida counties with relative large percentages of Spanish speakers already do provide ballots and other voting material in Spanish.

Switching registration for primary

Since Florida is what's known as a "closed-primary state," voters registered in the Republican Party cannot vote in a Democratic Party primary, and vice versa. Also "no party affiliation" voters who are not a member of any party and voters who are a member of a minor party cannot vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary.

So it's not unusual to see a flurry of activity of party enrollment changes in the last week or so before the deadline for qualifying to vote in the primary election. The moves often are designed to qualify to vote in a particular party's primary.

Data compiled by Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott's office show that:

• 923 voters switched to Democratic Party registration in the final week before the deadline. That included 233 Republicans, 669 no party affiliation voters and 21 members of minor parties.

• 749 voters switched to Republican Party registration in the final week before the deadline. That included 251 Democrats, 484 no party affiliation voters and 14 members of minor parties.

July 30 was the "book-closing" deadline to register to vote or change parties for Tuesday's primary election.

League of Cities honors Mayfield

The Florida League of Cities has awarded Florida Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Rockledge, with a 2018 Defender of Home Rule Award for her efforts to defend and protect the principles of municipal home rule during the 2018 legislative session.

In a statement, Mayfield said she is “honored to be recognized by the Florida League of Cities as a defender of home rule. I truly believe the government closest to the people should make the decisions that affect the quality of life in the community they represent. I will continue to fight for our communities to ensure that they can preserve their way of life.”

Recipients of the Defender of Home Rule Award are legislators who consistently voted and advocated on behalf of the League of Cities and its members.



Mayfield since 2016 has represented the 17th Senate District, which includes Indian River County and southern Brevard County. She previously served four terms in the Florida House of Representatives, from 2008 to 2016, representing parts of the Treasure Coast.

Dave Berman is government editor at FLORIDA TODAY.

His Political Spin column appears Sundays in FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649

or dberman@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @bydaveberman

Facebook: /dave.berman.54

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