Are Voter Registration Drives Being Put Out of Business?

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on July 25, 2007, Printed on July 25, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57815/

In 2004, Floridians overwhelmingly voted to raise their state minimum wage after low-income advocates collected ballot petition signatures, registered thousands of new voters and turned out the vote. The following spring, Florida's Republican-majority Legislature reacted. It passed a law that so severely regulated voter registration drives that, before the 2006 primary, Florida's League of Women Voters stopped registering voters for the first time in its history. The league feared mistakes on just 14 voter registration forms could result in penalties equal to its entire $70,000 budget.