A court has rejected a request by voting rights groups to extend Florida’s voter registration deadlines in response to a lawsuit that cited hurricane impacts.
A federal judge has denied an emergency petition to extend Florida’s voter registration deadlines that was filed by a coalition of voting rights groups, who argued that disruptions from Hurricanes Helene and Milton made it difficult for many Floridians to register.
Judge Robert L. Hinkle issued an order on Oct. 9 denying a request by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter to extend Florida’s Oct. 7 voter registration deadline by 10 days, in a lawsuit that was brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of the groups.
Hinkle’s brief one-page order, which cited reasons put forward during an oral hearing, denied the groups’ request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, thereby refusing to extend the state’s voter registration deadline.
The order represents a win for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who, along with Secretary of State Cory Byrd, was named in the lawsuit. The governor has refused to extend the deadline, saying on Oct. 7 that Hurricane Milton hadn’t hit yet and that an extension was not justified.
“People can register today [Monday],“ DeSantis said during a press briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. ”There’s nothing inhibiting you registering today. The storm has not hit yet.”
DeSantis said he would be happy to issue an executive order that changes other provisions of election laws, such as those governing early voting and polling place hours, in the event of damage to election infrastructure.
The governor’s remarks came several days after he signed an executive order allowing supervisors of elections in 13 counties affected by Hurricane Helene to make changes to voting procedures, citing “significant and continuing impact” of the natural disaster. His order allows relocating voting sites and drop boxes within 30 days of the election, hiring poll workers from outside their county, and sending mail ballots to addresses other than the voters’ registered home addresses.
However, several voter advocacy groups sent a letter to DeSantis with additional requests, including expanding the use of drop boxes and extending the voter registration deadline.
After DeSantis refused to extend the registration deadline, the groups filed suit, arguing that his refusal violated the First Amendment and constitutional equal-protection provisions by placing an undue burden on the right to vote. They argued in their emergency petition that the Oct. 7 deadline was “sandwiched between two life-threatening obstacles” to voter registration, namely the twin hurricanes.
“This year, tens of thousands of Florida residents—forced to choose between safety and exercising their fundamental right—have been denied the opportunity to register to vote,” the groups wrote in their complaint. “Many of the means and locations for aspiring voters to register have been closed, are inaccessible, or are out of reach on what ordinarily are some of the busiest voter registration days of the year.”
The groups argued that DeSantis’s refusal to reopen the registration period was unconstitutional as it would subject thousands of Florida residents to an “undue burden on their right to register and vote and to arbitrary and disparate treatment” as compared to other Florida voters.
During a hearing on Oct. 9, the judge said that the issue was not one for the courts to solve.
“The solution is not a constitutional reworking of the deadline that the Florida Legislature set,” Hinkle said, noting that the state of Florida had “substantial” interest in not extending the registration deadline because of the intense scrutiny surrounding the upcoming election.
“It’s important to have clear rules and follow them, and it’s especially important in the current environment,” Hinkle said.
The SPLC did not respond to a request for comment on the judge’s ruling.
In an earlier statement, Matletha Bennette, senior staff attorney for voting rights at the SPLC, said that voters across Florida “deserve the opportunity to register to vote, safely, after the threats posed by the storm have subsided.”
Cecile Scoon and Debbie Chandler, co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said in an earlier statement that DeSantis’s refusal amounts to “disenfranchising many Floridians who were unable to register due to a disaster beyond their control.”
Florida, the third-most populous state, is home to 30 electoral votes, making it a significant prize for a presidential candidate, who needs 270 votes to win the race for the White House.