U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Monday night ruled in favor of the Florida Democratic party’s demand that the voter-registration deadline be extended in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Republican governor Rick Scott had refused to extend the deadline, saying that Florida law didn’t give him the power to do so and that it was unnecessary: “Everybody has had a lot of time to register,” he said. But Walker rebuked Scott — and the state’s relevant law — granting a 24-hour extension through the duration of the court hearings that may result in Floridians receiving a weeklong voter-registration extension.
The Florida Democratic party argued that not extending the voter-registration deadline would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit noted that Scott had advised 1.5 million people to evacuate their homes as the hurricane neared landfall, saying “this storm will kill you” and “time is running out.” The Florida Democratic party claimed voters were therefore forced “to choose between their safety and the safety of their families on one hand, and their fundamental right to vote on the other.”
Scott had said that the original voter-registration deadline of Tuesday had allowed residents more than enough time, and suggested that the demand to extend the deadline was politically motivated. He may be right: Florida is the largest swing state, and last election cycle 80 percent of the 156,000 Floridians who registered just days before the deadline were Democrats. The Democratic party would unquestionably benefit from an extended voter-registration deadline.
Walker sided with the Florida Democratic party, dismissing Scott’s comments about the lawsuit’s political motives as “poppycock.” “This case is about the right of aspiring eligible voters to register and to have their votes counted. Nothing could be more fundamental to our democracy,” he said in the ruling.
