A three-judge panel will allow two civil rights groups to intervene in a lawsuit over Florida election-law changes (HB 1355 in the 2011 regular session). The tribunal allowed the National Council of La Raza and League of Women Voters to join other defendants in a legal action over a law that made major changes to early voting, voter registration and provisional voting in advance of the 2012 election. 

The groups will oppose the changes as discriminatory. The lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was brought by the state in seeking to obtain "pre-clearance" under the Voting Rights Act for five counties: Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee, Hendry and Monroe.