On Monday, October 10, a federal holiday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker ordered Florida to extend its deadline for individuals to register to vote from October 11 to 5 p.m. on October 12. A hearing will be held on October 12 to determine if that deadline should be extended further. This is amazingly fast work for a lawsuit that was only filed on Sunday, October 9. Here is the 16-page order in Florida Democratic Party v Scott, n.d., 4:16cv-626.
The basis is the storm emergency that sent hundreds of thousands of Florida residents away from their homes, and which caused postal mail delivery to be suspended in about half the counties of the state. The order applies statewide.
The order says, “The Constitution guarantees the right of voters to ‘cast their ballots and have them counted.’ U.S. v Classic, 313 US 299 (1941).” Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Imagine what would have happened if this suit had been brought by a minor party.
WILL ALL election alleged DEADLINES now be suspended routinely by robot party HACK judges due to ALL sorts of Mother Nature and human made events ???
Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc. etc. etc. — cop-person shootings on streets (possible riots), etc. etc. etc.
—
ALL mail elections.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.