Election official: Bilingual ballots in 32 Florida counties is ‘recipe for disaster’

Another Florida voting rights case heads to court Tuesday as advocacy groups ask a judge to tell the state to direct 32 counties to print voting materials in English and Spanish in the November election.

The plaintiffs argue that Hurricane Maria forced Puerto Rican voters to evacuate to counties all over Florida, including many places where all ballots, signs and other materials are printed only in English.

The lawsuit was filed by Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, Faith in Florida, Hispanic Federation, UnidosUS and Vamos4PR on behalf of a voter who's registered in Gainesville, Marta Valentina Rivera Madera.

The groups want election materials be printed in both languages in 32 counties, including Monroe, Pasco and Hernando.

A named defendant in the case is Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who's Gov. Rick Scott's chief elections official. Scott, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has done extensive outreach with Puerto Rican evacuees and has repeatedly visited the island nation.

Scott, through his elections experts, now must take sides on whether bilingual materials must be required for a group of voters who lean Democratic.

County election supervisors, who are already grappling with the possibility of more Russian intrusion, say a bilingual ballot requirement would be very difficult to achieve in the run-up to November.

"It's a recipe for disaster," said Pasco Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley. "It's nearly impossible to implement, what's being asked of us. I'm not sure why it's being asked of us now. It could have been asked earlier … Let's have this discussion after Nov. 6 (the date of the general election)."

Citrus Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill told the Times/Herald: "We'll do whatever is required. But I can't see us doing it before this election." She said the change would require buying, testing and installing new voting software and training more poll workers.

These are the 32 counties named in the suit and their estimated Spanish-speaking populations in 2015, from a declaration filed in the case by University of Florida political scientist Daniel Smith.

This case turns on Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which addresses the rights of individual voters who attended school in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

No one who completed Grade 6 in Puerto Rico, in which the predominant classroom language was other than English, "shall be denied the right to vote," the lawsuit says, quoting the law. The relevant law is here.

Thirteen other counties already must print ballots in both languages because their voting age populations include at least 5 percent who are Hispanic. Those 13 include Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Pinellas.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee, who has already played an important role in this election cycle.

He has ruled in several high-profile voting cases, including ending a ban on early voting on college campuses and striking down as unconstitutional the system for restoring the voting rights of felons, which has been stayed by a federal appeals court at the request of Scott and Cabinet members.

READ MORE: Judge: Florida's early voting on campus ban shows 'stark pattern of discrimination'

READ MORE: Meet Mark Walker, the judge who keeps clashing with Scott

Walker will hold a teleconference with the parties in the bilingual ballot case at 4 p.m. Tuesday and is well aware of the Florida election calendar.

"Time is of the essence," Walker has told both sides.