Leveling the Playing Field in a Changed Game: Florida's Reduction of Early Voting Days and Its Impact on African-American Voters

Abstract

This paper will discuss the 2011 Florida Legislature’s alteration of the state election laws in House Bill 1355, specifically the reduction of early voting days from 14 to 8 days statewide and the elimination of early voting on the final Sunday before Election Day. Because early voting, and especially early voting on the final Sunday, was disproportionately used by African-American Floridians in previous elections, the reduction in early voting days has a disproportionate impact on African-Americans. As such, this raises questions of whether the reduction constitutes a violation of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In order to analyze this issue, this paper will delve into the Florida election experience in the modern era, specifically the 2008 election which saw a great expansion in the use of early voting, especially by African-Americans, and the 2011 passage of the controversial new election laws which opponents claim restrict the ability of African-Americans to meaningfully participate in the election process. Through the lens of historical VRA § 2 jurisprudence, this paper will analyze HB 1355’s reduction in early voting and its effect on African-American voters in the 2012 election.