Judge won’t order 1-week extension of Florida voter registration

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge has rejected a request from the Florida Democratic Party to force the state to extend a voterregistration deadline because of Hurricane Michael.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle turned down the party’s request to extend the registration deadline to Oct. 16, a week later than the original Tuesday deadline. The party contended an extension was needed because the hurricane, which devastated parts of the Panhandle on Wednesday, could prevent people from registering to vote in the Nov. 6 election.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner this week issued a directive authorizing county elections supervisors whose offices were closed Tuesday to accept paper registration applications on the day that their offices reopen. Detzner did not extend a Tuesday night deadline for voters to register online.

Hinkle wrote that the Democratic Party believed the directive did not go far enough, but he denied the request for a temporary restraining order, with a few caveats.

They included in the order dealt with how Detzner’s directive would be carried out. For example, Hinkle sought to make sure Detzner’s directive is considered mandatory for the counties where elections offices were closed Tuesday. Similarly, he sought to make sure it applies on the first “full” business day county elections offices open all of their locations.

“The party has asked for a statewide extension of one week for all forms of registration. But there is no justification for this,” Hinkle wrote. “Some parts of the state were affected little by the hurricane. Extending the deadline in those parts of the state would not level the playing field or provide a remedy for the hurricane’s effects. Large numbers of voters register shortly before the deadline, but that happens routinely, with or without a hurricane. A state could set a later deadline or no deadline at all, but that is not the course Florida has chosen. The party does not challenge in this lawsuit the state’s decision to set a deadline 29 days before an election.”