TALLAHASSEE — Pinellas County wants to make it easier for new voters to fix identification problems under Florida's much-debated "no match, no vote" law, a move the state believes would be illegal.
The result is a new controversy involving the law, which requires that a new voter's driver's license number match the one in the state database.
Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark says she'll give voters with matching problems a chance to correct them at the polls on Election Day, so they won't have to cast provisional ballots.
She plans to tell poll workers to phone election headquarters to try to resolve cases of mismatched numbers, which can be the result of a clerical error.
"I don't think the person should be penalized if the error is on our side of the net," Clark said.
The state says that a mismatch must be corrected before the voter arrives at the polls. Otherwise, the voter must cast a provisional ballot and return with clarifying information within two days.
This added burden on the voter is why Clark objects: "I don't think the voter should have to bring proof after the election."
Secretary of State Kurt Browning said Friday in an interview from a military base in Germany that Clark is misinterpreting the law, and he is worried about potential legal challenges if the "no match, no vote" law is not enforced uniformly in all 67 counties.
Further, he said, the state also reads the law to mean only an employee of a county elections office can accept proof of voter identification and it must take place in the elections office, not at a polling place. (Poll workers are not employees).
Browning, who has been in Kuwait visiting with overseas military voters from Florida, said he would decide what step to take after meeting with legal advisors Monday.
Browning has been under fire from voter advocacy groups who claim the law could disenfranchise voters. The law was challenged, but a federal judge upheld it in June and Browning implemented the law, which only affects voters registering Sept. 8 or later.
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