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Browning announces program for teachers registering voters

Posted Dec 15, 2011 by William March

Updated Dec 15, 2011 at 06:28 PM

In response to cases of Florida teachers incurring potential criminal liability for registering high school students to vote under Florida’s new voter registration laws, Secretary of State Kurt Browning has announced a program to shield the teachers in cases of violation of the law’s technical requirements.

The cases have added to the controversy over the new voting laws passed during the last legislative session—controversy that led to a federal lawsuit against the laws filed today.

In a couple of cases, teachers have run afoul of the laws after helping high school students register. Under the law, anyone who helps another person fill out a voter registration form and accepts the form from that person must be registered with the state as a “third party voter registrant” and must turn in the form within 48 hours. Failure to comply is a crime, and Browning’s office has referred one Santa Rosa County teacher to the state Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution, and issued a warning to another in Volusia County, for violations.

Browning’s new program would enable school districts to become third party voter registration organizations, and teachers registering students would be affiliates of their district organization. Under the law, the district, not the teacher, would then be liable for violation, said Chris Cate, spokesman for Browning’s office.

There’s no worry that school districts would end up having to pay huge fines, he said, because under the law, the maximum an organization can be fined, if its affiliated individuals are properly registered, is $1,000 a year.

“We’re realizing many teachers don’t know about the law, and we want to make sure they can comply with the law while continuing to register students,” Cate said.

Hillsborough School District spokesman Steve Hegarty said Thursday it’s not likely the district will participate, because it has a longstanding and successful program of having the election supervisor’s office conduct on-campus voter registration drives in all county high schools. “We see no reason to change the process.”