Opinion

Amend state constitution to ensure voter access

Dan Gelber
Published: November 14, 2012

Why were the lines so obscenely long? Because the state Legislature wanted them long, and there was little anyone could do to stop them.

This was not an accident or poor planning. Hoping to dissuade Democratic-leaning voters from being counted, the Legislature intentionally reduced early voting periods and placed on the ballot exceedingly long and multi-part amendments. This witch's brew of less time to vote and a longer ballot to review produced a voting system that failed its primary function, namely, to provide citizens with a meaningful opportunity to cast their vote.

Under current law there was little Florida's citizens could do to protect themselves from this arrogant overreaching by their Legislature.

That is why I believe our citizens need to take the extraordinary step of enshrining in our state constitution an amendment that guarantees every citizen meaningful voter access.

Yes, it's very sad that the citizens of our state need their rights protected from their own government. But if there is anything this last election has taught us, it's that our right to vote is clearly imperiled in Florida.

I propose adding a new section to Article VI of the state constitution, which would include language guaranteeing to every Floridian the right to meaningful voter access and opportunity. This provision would ensure we have sufficient personnel, equipment and locations and that elections are convenient and orderly.

If citizens adopt it, this provision would give Florida courts jurisdiction to make sure the Legislature and county election supervisors provide an orderly voting process. Citizens would have a remedy, and judges would be empowered to order counties or state officials to provide adequate voting booths, expand early voting periods and make sure people don't have to endure long lines to vote.

Gov. Rick Scott's recent announcement that he intends to look into what happened in the last election is ironic because he needs to look no further than the mirror. Everything that happened on Election Day — shorter voting periods, longer ballots, limited early-voting sites and the horrendous lines — was Gov. Scott's (and the Republican Legislature's) doing. But we cannot trust that will happen. For more than a decade, Republican legislators and governors have repeatedly manipulated voting procedures here to gain advantages at the polls.

A constitutional right to meaningful voter access will change this dynamic and shift the power to citizens.

Dan Gelber was a state senator and former House Democratic leader from Miami.