Plaintiffs File Motion Seeking Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Against Florida’s Refusal to Allow Early Voting on Public College or University Campuses
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2018
Plaintiffs File Motion Seeking Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Against Florida’s Refusal to Allow Early Voting on Public College or University Campuses
Washington, DC — Supported by the Priorities USA Foundation, this morning the League of Women Voters of Florida, The Andrew Goodman Foundation and a group of young Florida voters filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent Florida Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner from enforcing his unconstitutional prohibition of early voting on college and university campuses. The Priorities USA Foundation, a national non-partisan voting rights group, has been sponsoring the plaintiffs’ challenge to Secretary Detzner’s interpretation of the state’s early voting law since they filed suit last month.
The motion filed today requests that the court enjoin Secretary Detzner from enforcing his contention that the state’s early voting law does not allow public college and university campuses to host early voting locations. With this year’s primary and general statewide elections rapidly approaching, the plaintiffs are requesting an immediate end to this practice, which systematically burdens young Floridians’ right to vote.
“Young people across Florida are excited and ready to vote this August and November, and we should be doing all that we can to encourage their participation in our democracy,” said Guy Cecil, Chairman of the Priorities USA Foundation. “That’s why it is so unconscionable that Secretary Detzner’s actions essentially treat Florida’s young people as a separate class of citizens who now must travel farther and wait longer to cast their ballots. We’re confident that we will prevail in court when this case goes to full trial, and in the meantime urge the court to stop Secretary Detzner from suppressing the vote any further.”
The Priorities USA Foundation is committed to protecting the right to vote for every American. The Foundation is also supporting a lawsuit in Iowa challenging the state’s recent law restricting access to the ballot box, and the Foundation supported lawsuits filed in 2017 against voter suppressive laws in New Hampshire and Indiana.