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Nelson calls for investigation of Florida voting laws

Posted Nov 1, 2011 by William March

Updated Nov 1, 2011 at 06:04 PM

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has called for a congressional investigation as to whether new voting laws passed by Florida and other states are part of a nationwide effort coordinated by a conservative advocacy group to suppress voter turnout.

Nelson’s request, focussing on the American Legislative Exchange Council, seeks hearings in Florida and some of the other 12 states that have passed new voting laws similar to those recommended by ALEC.

ALEC is heavily funded by corporate interests including the well-known Koch brothers, industrialists with oil and other interests who are among the nation’s wealthiest people.

The organization writes model legislation for state lawmakers. Dozens of Florida legislators are members, and attended the group’s conference in New Orleans this summer.

In last spring’s legislative session, the Republican majority in the Legislature passed new laws that shortened the hours for early voting, which is popular among minorities; made it harder for people with name changes or address changes to vote, changes likely to affect students and women voters; and made “third-party” voter registration drives, those conducted by such organizations as the League of Women Voters, more difficult.

The League and others are challenging those new laws in court.

Nelson made his request in a letter to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. In the letter, he noted that The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law said in a recent that the new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five-million eligible voters in several states including Florida to vote in 2012.

Nelson asked the committee “to determine whether there was an orchestrated effort to disenfranchise voters by passing voter restrictions, and if so, to what extent such might be illegal.”

Nelson also put his request into a speech Tuesday on the Senate floor.