Monday will be a "Day of Action" on State of Florida college campuses against a state legislature anti-voter registration bill

An entire Florida College Democrats press release.

"Under short notice, House Republicans expanded a short, 14 page elections bill into a 128 page attack on the voting rights of Floridians. The bill, HB 1355, is largely a carbon copy of a similar proposal two years ago, SB 956 during the 2009 Legislative session, to eliminate crucial election rights Floridians enjoy. In 2009, the bill was just over 70 pages long, making this bill twice as long and complex. The 2009 proposal failed after a significant backlash against the proposals by constituents. The proposed changes will negatively impact students in particular.

Florida College Democrats (FCD) will host a “Day of Action” against this legislation on college campuses throughout the state on Monday, April 4th. FCD held such a day of action in 2009 after the introduction of SB 956 with great success, increasing student awareness of this draconian legislation and generating large volumes of calls to legislators.

The following is a summary of the most devastating changes in HB 1335:

1. End Election Day address changes for voters already registered elsewhere in Florida
2. Require anyone collecting voter registrations to register with the State.
3. Forces registration volunteers to sign statements that threaten fines for application mistakes. (Designed to discourage volunteers from engaging in registration efforts.)
4. Require all organizations collecting voter registrations (including grassroots student clubs on college campuses) to submit the names, addresses, dates of birth, and aforementioned statements for every one of their volunteers to the State.
5. Require all organizations (including student groups) to obtain custom registration forms from the local Supervisor of Elections with the organization’s name identified on the form. Forms used today or those available to the general public are not permitted.
6. $100 fine for each application delivered to the Supervisor of Elections just 2 days after being signed. (A trap, because many individuals sign the form and only turn it in for delivery by the organization days later.)
7. Fines collected will no longer go towards voter education.
8. Prohibits voter protection activity within 100 feet of the line to vote. (Not the polling place itself. Remember that UCF experienced a line over 5 hours long in 2008. Voter protection in that case would have been forced thousands of feet away from the polling place.)
9. Effectively prohibits the offering of legal advice to disenfranchised voters.

These changes will effectively neuter all campus activism by placing legal barriers in the face of students helping their friends and neighbors participate in our electoral Democracy. Non-partisan entities ranging from Student Governments, to Housing Departments, to Honors Societies will be unable to meet these new legal requirements to engage in voter registration drives."

This State of Florida legislature bill slaps the face of anyone there willing to serve their community by participating in a voter registration drive; these drives are politically non-partisan, as anyone who signs a voter registration card is free to vote any way he pleases.  Please take action if you feel this is an attack on democracy and the civic enterprise of public service!

Remember, "voting turnout and activism means spreading the word!"