http://www.alternet.org/democracy/98...ise_thousands/
(snip)"The law at issue bars any Florida citizen from voting a valid ballot if the state cannot validate their driver's license number or the last 4 digits of their Social Security number, no matter how much identification the voter is able to bring to the polls. The process starts with an attempt to "match" voter information to other government databases, an error-prone exercise that often fails.
For example, the Social Security Administration reports that 46% failure rate when trying to match voter registration applications. State officials admitted in a recent challenge to the law, Florida NAACP v. Browning, that typographical errors by election workers are responsible for most of the failures." (end snip)
(snip)"
The most senseless part is that the state creates these errors, and then makes it unnecessarily hard to fix the problem," said Myrna Pérez of the Brennan Center. "If the state insists on enforcing this misguided matching provision, it should at least make it possible for voters to show their driver's license at the poll and validate their registration then and there. To have registered, brought your ID to the polls, and still be told you can't vote -- all because of a bureaucratic error -- is ridiculous." (end snip)
(snip)""
It is unfortunate that the Secretary of State launched this policy less than a month before registration deadline. Had he enforced this sooner, there might have been time to troubleshoot the law or investigate its consequences, but this is really the 11th hour and is certain to derail eligible voters. At the very least, counties can and should help avoid the chaos that this law creates by making it possible to fix the problem at the polls," urged Elizabeth Westfall of Advancement Project, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. (end snip)
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