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Durbin grants Nelson request for hearings on Florida election laws

Posted Nov 16, 2011 by William March

Updated Nov 16, 2011 at 12:27 PM

Sen. Richard Durbin has granted a request from Florida Sen. Bill Nelson for a Senate committee hearing in Florida on whether new, restrictive voting laws in Florida and other states are part of an orchestrated nationwide effort to suppress voter turnout in advance of the 2012 election.

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is chairman of a Senate judiciary subcommittee on the constitution and civil rights.

In a letter to Nelson, who has crusaded against the new laws, Durbin said he held a hearing in September on “the disenfranchising impact of a number of new state laws including Florida’s.” He said he wrote to Florida Gov. Rick Scott after that hearing to ask what steps Scott’s administration plans to take to ensure Florida’s new laws don’t disenfranchise Floridians, and hasn’t received an answer yet.

Durbin said he’ll hold a hearing in Florida, with no details yet available on where or when, “to explore the impact of Florida’s law as well as the impact of similar laws recently passed in other states.”

Nelson had asked for the field hearings in Florida and 13 other states where similar laws were passed, and has also asked for a U.S. Justice Department investigation, to check into whether efforts to pass the legislation were part of a coordinated nationwide effort, and whether that’s illegal.

He and other Democrats believe the laws originated with a little-known but highly influential conservative advocacy organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which develops model legislation for its members, state legislators. Many Florida Republican legislators are members, including backers and sponsors of the new elections laws.

The new laws limit times available for early voting, which is popular with minority voters; make it more difficult for voters with name or address changes to cast ballots on election day, which is thought likely to affect young and female voters; and impose tough restrictions on non-government agencies that conduct voter registration drives.

The registration measure has already caused the League of Women Voters to halt its registration drives, and resulted in investigations with potential fines in cases of high school civics teachers helping their students register to vote.