Jesse Scheckner
Legislation to prevent motorists from unknowingly deregistering from their political party while renewing their driver’s license is now one committee stop from a House floor vote.
If passed, the measure (HB 135) would ensure that a voter could only switch to or leave a party if they mean to do so and require several authentication steps to prevent accidental changes.
Highland Beach Republican Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, the bill’s sponsor alongside Delray Beach Republican Rep. Mike Caruso, said that hundreds of thousands of Florida voters may have had their party registration changed due to a problem with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) software used to both update voter registration cards and renew or replace driver’s licenses.
Through the since-corrected process, motorists seeking new or updated licenses were also given the option of updating their voter registration. But if they did not re-select their existing party, the system switched them to no-party affiliation (NPA).
That change, which many voters didn’t know occurred until they tried casting ballots, prevented an untold number of residents from participating in Primary Elections in the past seven to eight years, Gossett-Seidman said.
“It was an IT glitch,” she told the House Infrastructure and Tourism Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. “I encountered (the problem while) knocking on doors for NPA (support). There were so many people, and it wasn’t Palm Beach only. It was Broward County … Hillsborough County (and) many other counties, including Orange.”
Gossett-Seidman said “three or four dozen people” she spoke to on their front porches expressed exasperation at being unwillingly booted from their political party and, consequently, the Primary process. She took the issue to Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link and Tax Collector Anne Gannon. They advised her to “take it higher up.”
So, she did. Gossett-Seidman conferred with House Speaker Paul Renner, DHSMV Director Dave Kerner and Secretary of State Cord Byrd.
“These people gave full support to this hard look,” she said. “I give them full credit.”
HB 135 and its identical Senate analog (SB 1256) would be effective upon being signed into law. DHSMV offices would have to comply with its directives within three months of that date.
The bill would:
— Prohibit DHSMV from using voter registration applications to change an applicant’s political party without their expressed written consent.
— Require a separate original signature and printed receipt confirming a person’s consent to changing parties.
— Require DHSMV to document and forward to the Department of State records of party affiliation changes.
— Prohibit DHSMV clerks from encouraging party changes unless the customer has a clear disability and requests assistance.
— Require driver’s license examiners providing voter registration services to ask whether an applicant is registered to vote. If the person is not registered or doesn’t know the status of their registration, the examiner must ask whether the person wishes to register to vote and, if the person is registered, whether they want to update their voter registration card. If the person chooses not to disclose that information, the DHSMV employee must make an official note of that decision and forward it to the Department of State.
Gossett-Seidman’s bill received unanimous support Tuesday from both sides of the dais. Steve Schale, a Democratic political strategist who led Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign in Florida and now runs the Joe Biden-backing PAC, Unite the Country, signaled approval alongside four others from the audience.
Clearwater Republican Rep. Kimberly Berfield said she’d discussed the matter with Gossett-Seidman last year and commended her for correcting the problem and following up with a legislative backstop to prevent future errors.
“When people talk about having their Representatives listen to what their concerns are and addressing them,” she said, “this is a perfect example of that.”
HB 135 is to next go before the House State Affairs Committee, its last stop before a full chamber vote. SB 1256 awaits a hearing in front of the second of three committees to which it was referred last month.
