It is a crime in Florida for a teacher to help students register to vote

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/promoting-civic-involvement-shouldnt-be-a-crime/1198678

In Print: Thursday, October 27, 2011

In an effort to provide a hands-on lesson in civic responsibility, New Smyrna Beach High School teacher Jill Cicciarelli simply wanted to register 50 of her students to vote. But what began as a routine exercise in democracy could result in Cicciarelli facing thousands of dollars in fines for violating a new state law that needlessly complicates voter registration. In their zeal to suppress the vote to gain a political advantage, Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature have made it a crime for high school teachers to help students register to vote and prepare them for a life of civic engagement.

Cicciarelli preregistered 50 17-year-old students to vote at the start of the school year. But those registration forms ran afoul of Florida's new election law, which requires third parties who sign up new voters to register with the state and submit new voter application forms within 48 hours. The new rules, including an additional provision that forces some voters who change their address to cast a provisional ballot, are so onerous that even the Florida League of Women Voters has decided to suspend its voter registration efforts.

Because she was on maternity leave earlier this year, the Volusia County educator wasn't aware of the changes. While the teacher could merely receive a warning for her seditious conduct, Cicciarelli faces a potential fine of $50 for each application she improperly processed and up to a $1,000 fine for her role as an unregistered third party agent of record. That's some expensive civics lesson.

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Plus they are 9mos. old at birth.

Signed up just for this thread?

Must have hit a nerve.

Don

This was how I was registered long ago.

yup

They made it a crime to not turn in the registrations within 48 hours...just another law that makes it hard for third parties to register others to vote. In essence, it makes it impossible for someone like a teacher to register people to vote unless they make it a point to take valid registrations to the elections office every day at lunch (and the elections office is open at lunch, etc). As noted in the newspaper article, even the League of Women voters cannot abide by the new laws because they are just too draconian and designed specifically to STOP registering people who go to these GOTV events (mostly young people, who are more likely to vote Democrat).

I'm still reeling that we got this fucking asshole for a governor...we hadn't recovered from Jeb yet.

It's getting some attention now.


http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2011/11/03/volusia-elections-supervisor-discusses-voting-law-dispute-on-national-tv.html



snip:

Now U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson -- who met with the teacher and some of her students in his Orlando office last week -- is asking Congress to investigate whether new laws in more than a dozen states represent a concerted effort by Republican lawmakers to suppress voter turnout.

Voter suppression like this has been an ALEC-sponsored
agenda item in many, many states including my own state
of New Hampshire.

The only wonder is that it's so blatant yet getting so
little response or opposition.

Tesha

hell, even if 100 folks sent 10.00 we'd be able to make a point and help her out.

this is what the republicans will do to suppress the vote, along with machine tampering, gerrymandering and whatever other ways they can/

They teach civic responsibility, right? That's why the public funds them, right?

Voting is a pretty damned important part of civic responsibility.

And when you get down to it, a legal registered voter is a legal registered voter. It's really none of the state's business who does what as long as it's done legally.

Stupid and evil.