Online voter registration form called into question

Florida’s new online voter registration form violates the very state law that created it, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said Tuesday.

“The law requires no differences [between in-person registration and] online,” Bucher told the Palm Beach Legislative Delegation. “But in the online program, voters must provide their exact name from the Department of Highway Safety and the last four digits of their Social Security number, and the date of issuance [of their driver’s license].”

In-person registrants can provide either their Social Security number or their driver’s license number but do not need to supply both.

With much fanfare, the Florida Department of State debuted online voter registration at the beginning of October. The online registration system was created under a bill passed by the Florida Legislature in 2015. That bill was filed by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, a member of the Palm Beach Legislative Delegation.

“When I wrote the law, I was concerned with making sure the registrations that were performed online weren’t treated any differently than those that were handed in on paper,” Clemens said. “So I didn’t really contemplate that they would ask for different information from online registrants.”

Nevertheless, the new online voter registration form could be a violation of the letter of the law despite Clemens’ intent. The Department of State disagrees. “The department is well within the requirements of the statute,” said spokeswoman Sarah

Revell. “Additional fields of information, such as the issued date of a Florida driver license or state ID card, provides another layer of protection against voter identity theft as this information should only be known by the individual registering to vote.”

The online voter registration fix was just one of several that Bucher asked of the Palm Beach Legislative Delegation. Others included allowing the publication of sample ballots over email rather than in newspapers and providing a public records exemption for the Florida voter file, a response to demands for information from President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission.

Protecting the entire Florida voter file from public records requests would be among the largest exemptions ever to Florida’s expansive public records law. And the savings generated by email sample ballots would likely be fought by newspapers trying to hold onto printing revenues.

The meeting also featured votes on whether to bring five local bills up for consideration in the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 9.

One bill the Palm Beach Legislative Delegation approved would move 50 acres of land from the Acme Improvement Water District to the Pine Tree Water District. That will ensure all 150 acres owned by the Flying Cow Ranch are in the same water district, a necessary prerequisite to annexation by Palm Beach County.

But while a slight change to the West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund and the dissolution of the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District also went off without a hitch, the other two local bills ran into trouble. One was even rejected, a rarity at this early stage of the legislative process.

Carlene Blunt has commercial and residential development plans for 38 acres she owns in Golf, a village of less than 300 people just south of Woolbright Road and east of Military Trail that mostly includes the Country Club of Florida.

But Golf ’s elected officials don’t want more residential development, so a lawyer representing Blunt presented a bill that would move those 38 acres out of Golf and into unincorporated Palm Beach County.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Emily Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, failed.

“We need to give the local government — the people who are elected — the say,” said state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Boynton Beach.

Slosberg withdrew her bill with the option to file it again after a poll of Golf ’s residents.

“It’s important to listen to local government, but it’s more important to listen to the people,” she said.

The delegation heard a bill by state Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, that would allow Palm Beach County to add two members to the Palm Beach County Housing Authority’s board. Right now, the five-member board is appointed by Gov. Rick Scott.

That bill was approved, but not before current members of the board spoke out against it.

“If you add additional members, conflict arises,” said board member Paul Dumar. He believed county commissioners appointing board members would lead to conflicts of interest and financial improprieties, but the legislative delegation felt greater local oversight was needed, especially after the Housing Authority’s executive director was fired in late July for financial malfeasance.

“The only impropriety that has been proven and found has been within your organization, sir,” Abruzzo said.