Voting Rights Watch: Florida 'no match' list at 10,556 voters; rule inconsistently applied

Florida has released the final number of voters who will be taken off the rolls due to the newly-enforced "no match" rule: 10,566 voters.

As the Orlando Sentinel reports:

Under the law first enacted in 2006 and then litigated for two years, Floridians who register to vote are flagged if their names or Social Security numbers don't match state and federal databases. They are then held off the rolls until they prove their identities.

Since re-imposing the law Sept. 8, the state Division of Elections took in 438,556 voter registrations, forwarded 63,814 registration on to its voter registration services bureau, and then sent 23,057 of those down to the 67 county election supervisors to try and clear up.

Voters who registered and aren't in the system can still vote provisionally, but will have to return with prof of ID by 5 p.m. Thursday for their votes to be counted.

The Miami Herald reported on Friday that one-third of those on the "no match" list are in Miami-Dade or Broward Counties, which are expecting record turnout on Election Day.

Meanwhile, the Broward-Palm Beach weekly paper The New Times reports on how the no match law is being arbitrarily applied to wrongfully deny legitimate voters:

One voter turned away is a freelancer for New Times, Penn Bullock. Bullock is a new Florida resident who beat the October 6 deadline to register -- and he's one of 12,000 new voters in Florida who have been snagged up by the No Match law, which is officially known as the Florida Voter Verification Law. [...]

On October 16, Penn received a form letter from SOE Brenda Snipes informing him that her office was unable to verify his D/L [driver's license]. "To become an active voter you will need to provide this office with a copy of your Florida driver's license," the letter informed him.

Bullock made a trip to the supervisor's office in the downtown governmental center. There, a clerk told him that since he hadn't fixed the problem by October 6 -- when the books were closed on new registrations -- he couldn't vote in this election.

He left the office in a dejected fashion, but returned later in the day. I witnessed it this time. A clerk told him that since he was a first-time voter and the October 6 deadline had passed, his unverified registration was "considered null."

Bullock held his ground this time and produced a copy of the letter. The clerk then went to consult with a superior and, voila, he was told the problem had been cleared up and he could vote after all.

Adding to the confusion is that about half of Florida's counties have said they'll allow voters who bring ID to vote regular ballots instead of provisional ballots.