Browning to 'regroup' over voter rights issue

By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU CHIEF

TALLAHASSEE — Nearly 16,000 contested Florida voters will be back on the rolls by the end of today now that Secretary of State Kurt Browning has lost his latest legal round in an Atlanta federal court.

"We're going to have to regroup with our technical and legal staff," Browning spokesman Sterling Ivey said Thursday.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday denied Browning's request to temporarily put on hold a ruling by a Gainesville federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle Dec. 18 ordered the state to stop turning away would be voters if their applications failed to match driver license or Social Security records. Mickle sided with the NAACP and voting rights advocates who challenged a 2002 federal law designed to crack down on voting fraud.

Browning also asked Mickle to put his ruling on hold pending the appeal, saying that retooling the system would be disruptive, especially if the Atlanta court granted his appeal. Mickle couldn't have disagreed more.

Eliminating the match requirement should make the process easier, allowing local supervisors more time to concentrate on the last minute rush of registrations before the Jan. 29 presidential primary, Mickle wrote in an order issued Wednesday upholding his original injunction.