A federal judge has refused to block a new version of a Florida voter registration law that critics say could keep thousands of people from casting ballots this year.
U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle issued the ruling Tuesday in Gainesville. Last year, he granted a preliminary injunction against an earlier version of the law. He was reversed on appeal and the Legislature modified the law.
Both versions require elections officials to match Social Security, state identification or driver license numbers listed on voter registration applications with numbers in government databases.
"This ruling puts thousands of real Florida citizens at risk this November based on bureaucratic typos," lawyer Justin Levitt said Wednesday.
Levitt represents the Florida Conference of the National Association of Colored People and other groups challenging the law.
Under the new version, if the state is unable to match a number, an applicant can still register by providing verification of either his or her driver license, identity card or Social Security number regardless of which one was entered on the application.
The old version required that the number on the application had to be verified _ no substitutes allowed.
The lawsuit alleges both versions of the law violate citizens' constitutional rights to vote and equal protection under the law.
In rejecting a preliminary injunction against the new law, Mickle wrote that challengers failed to establish a likelihood of prevailing on the constitutional issues that will be decided later. The judge also found that matching up identification is justified "by the state's compelling interest in fair and honest elections."
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