In a victory for voting rights, a Florida judge on Thursday rejected an attempt by Rick Scott’s Senate campaign to stop the counting of valid, timely filed ballots in Broward County. The ruling, which found that the Scott campaign had not shown a justification to have those ballots invalidated, came after the League of Women Voters in Florida and Common Cause Florida, represented by the Brennan Center and private lawyers, intervened in a lawsuit between the campaign and the Broward supervisor of elections and the canvassing board.
In addition to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, the plaintiffs were represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Michael S. Olin of the law firm Buckner + Miles in Miami, and Michael J. Ryan of the firm Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock Liberman in Fort Lauderdale.
Scott’s campaign had claimed that Broward County voters should be disenfranchised if Broward County hadn’t counted their votes by a preliminary unofficial statutory deadline. The Brennan Center argued every ballot timely cast by an eligible voter should be counted.
“A candidate argued that the voices of eligible voters should not be included if their election officials missed a deadline, and thankfully, that attempt was beaten back,” said Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program and head of its voting rights project. “We’re proud to represent the people of Florida to ensure their rights are upheld, their voices are heard, and their will at the ballot box is protected.”
As the skirmishing over Florida’s vote count continues to unfold, Thursday’s ruling is an encouraging step toward ensuring that the voices of all voters in Florida will be heard.
(Image: Joe Skipper/Getty)