https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20181105/lawsuit-and-emails-show-duval-county-elections-supervisor-wouldnt-provide-spanish-ballots
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Lawsuit and emails show Duval County elections supervisor wouldn't provide Spanish ballots
By Andrew Pantazi
Posted at 10:51 AM
Updated at 10:55 AM
Lawsuit and emails show Duval County elections supervisor wouldn't provide Spanish ballots
Voting rights groups alleged in a court filing Sunday that Duval County refused to provide Spanish-language sample ballots at early voting sites. The groups attached emails with a city attorney arguing that the county wasn't required to do so.
In September, a Tallahassee federal judge ordered Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan and other supervisors to "provide signage, sample facsimile ballots, and notice in Spanish on their websites." That order said it was too late to require Hogan to provide official ballots in Spanish.
In that order, federal Judge Mark E. Walker wrote that "it is remarkable that it takes a coalition of voting rights organizations and individuals to sue in federal court to seek minimal compliance with the plain language of a venerable 53-year-old law."
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https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20181105/lawsuit-and-emails-show-duval-county-elections-supervisor-wouldnt-provide-spanish-ballots
Interesting. I didn't know it was so difficult to get a Spanish ballot in a major Florida county in 2018.
No doubt in my mind that Mr. Hogan intentionally avoided doing so to suppress the Hispanic vote. It's pretty unnerving when you realize that the Supervisor of Elections office is run by a partisan, backassward rube who has no integrity. I hope he gets punished.
This is kinda interesting - the sample ballot I got in the mail was in english and spanish.
So was mine...hmmm...
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Hogan described in a statement late Monday what he called "our significant efforts to provided [sic] Spanish voters with a Spanish-language sample ballot." He said the office mailed out sample ballots in English and Spanish to "every one of the 494,696 registered voters in Duval County." (There are actually 607,386 registered voters.)
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According to the court filing, though, a Spanish-speaking voter in Duval asked for a Spanish sample ballot when voting Sunday. "Despite her request, a polling official at the early voting site did not provide her a Spanish-language facsimile ballot."
When an attorney emailed Hogan, Jason Teal, assistant general counsel for the city, wrote that "our read of Judge Walker's order never mandated that Spanish-language sample ballots appear in early voting sites."
Hogan added that there were 271 versions of sample ballots and it wasn't feasible to keep all 271 versions available at every early voting site.
Hogan's responses seem fairly reasonable to me, but if the sample ballots are online, why not just print them as people ask for them at early voting.
^That would seem like a simple solution.
Quote from: Tacachale on November 06, 2018, 11:35:39 AM
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Hogan described in a statement late Monday what he called "our significant efforts to provided [sic] Spanish voters with a Spanish-language sample ballot." He said the office mailed out sample ballots in English and Spanish to "every one of the 494,696 registered voters in Duval County." (There are actually 607,386 registered voters.)
...
According to the court filing, though, a Spanish-speaking voter in Duval asked for a Spanish sample ballot when voting Sunday. "Despite her request, a polling official at the early voting site did not provide her a Spanish-language facsimile ballot."
When an attorney emailed Hogan, Jason Teal, assistant general counsel for the city, wrote that "our read of Judge Walker's order never mandated that Spanish-language sample ballots appear in early voting sites."
Hogan added that there were 271 versions of sample ballots and it wasn't feasible to keep all 271 versions available at every early voting site.
Hogan's responses seem fairly reasonable to me, but if the sample ballots are online, why not just print them as people ask for them at early voting.
Sounds like an issue of incompetence or budget more than some sort of nefarious plot to me.
Quote from: Adam White on November 06, 2018, 11:38:11 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on November 06, 2018, 11:35:39 AM
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Hogan described in a statement late Monday what he called "our significant efforts to provided [sic] Spanish voters with a Spanish-language sample ballot." He said the office mailed out sample ballots in English and Spanish to "every one of the 494,696 registered voters in Duval County." (There are actually 607,386 registered voters.)
...
According to the court filing, though, a Spanish-speaking voter in Duval asked for a Spanish sample ballot when voting Sunday. "Despite her request, a polling official at the early voting site did not provide her a Spanish-language facsimile ballot."
When an attorney emailed Hogan, Jason Teal, assistant general counsel for the city, wrote that "our read of Judge Walker's order never mandated that Spanish-language sample ballots appear in early voting sites."
Hogan added that there were 271 versions of sample ballots and it wasn't feasible to keep all 271 versions available at every early voting site.
Hogan's responses seem fairly reasonable to me, but if the sample ballots are online, why not just print them as people ask for them at early voting.
Sounds like an issue of incompetence or budget more than some sort of nefarious plot to me.
Based on Mike Hogan's public political experience, I completely agree.