Election Season Headaches and the Law

Chicago voters wait outside a polling station during the 2012 election.
Photo: John Kershner / Shutterstock.com

It’s election season, and that means a plethora of lawsuits and protests about voter-related errors, ballots, and the voting process as a whole, both on the local and on the federal level.

It was no different last time we had a presidential election. Voters in Florida and Virginia waited for hours in line at some polling sites, and a series of voting machine malfunctions made voting in Ohio a less than smooth operation. Civil rights groups said they fielded more than 88,600 reports of problems nationwide.

Much of the confusion came from a new law in some states requiring voters to provide photo ID before they were allowed to vote. While proponents of the new laws said they were put in place to prevent voter fraud, detractors worried the laws would prevent minority and older voters without IDs from being able to vote.

Unfortunately, the situation isn’t looking much brighter this year. Just recently, the Broward County elections office in Florida came under fire after a lawsuit was filed against them. The suit claims a constitutional amendment involving the legalization of medical marijuana was left off of mail-in ballots.

Broward elections supervisor Brenda Snipes said her office reviewed 92 different ballot styles (voters get different kinds of ballots depending on where they live) and found none that were missing the amendment. She suggested that any ballots sent without the amendment were test ballots sent in error.
The fact that Snipes is uncertain, however, leads many civil rights groups to be nervous.

Election law expert and local lawyer Kendall Coffey suggested that the issue could be solved with an immediate review of the different versions of the ballot to determine which, if any, are missing the amendment.

“The least difficult approach may be to notify voters—through media and otherwise—that if they reside in one of the applicable precincts and are voting absentee, they can secure a new ballot,” Coffey said. “In that scenario, previous ballots for the precinct could be separated and discarded upon receipt of a new ballot from the voter.”

As for the upcoming presidential election, changes in voter regulations may or may not simplify the process.

Florida’s Treasure Coast residents voting by mail-in ballot will no longer have to worry about having their ballots automatically thrown out without notification if their signatures don’t match their voter registration records. Starting November 8, voters will be able to update the signatures on their voter registration cards so that their ballots can be officially counted.

Between 2004 and 2014, 1,101 vote-by-mail ballots were thrown out because of this issue, so the hope is that this change in policy will prevent the problem moving forward.

Voting continues to be an imperfect process, but it’s vital that you get out and vote in both local and national elections. Your voice can help change the way laws are made and enacted so that they better serve the people they’re supposed to protect.