Republished with permission from Florida Phoenix, by Michael Moline

A voting-rights organizer testified Monday that a 2023 law has made it more difficult for groups like his to register new voters, especially the Hispanics his organization mostly works with.

Jared Nordlund, Florida director for Unidos US, specifically cited provisions barring non-U.S. citizens from helping third-party organizations like his register people to vote and imposing $50,000 fines if they make any errors.

He conceded that people can register online and in government offices, including local supervisors of elections offices and government agencies like the DMV. But he added that many of his constituents lack familiarity with web-based services and suffer from a language barrier in communicating with officials.

Then there’s the reality of the lives they lead, Nordlund added.

“Most of our people are probably working nine-to-five hourly jobs and can’t take off time to go to the elections office when they’re open to register them to vote,” he said.

The testimony came on Day One of a trial over the law and as the state and local elections supervisors prepare for the November general election, in which Floridians will vote for president and an array of national, state, and local offices. U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee enjoined some aspects of the law in July 2023, but the outcome will determine the long-term ability of third-party organizations like Unidos to help their constituents exercise their right to vote.

During Monday’s proceedings, Abha Khanna, an attorney representing a variety of voter-registration organizations challenging the law, asked Nordlund, “When your canvassers are out in the community, they meet voters where they are. Is that correct?”

“Correct, yes,” Nordlund said.

Also critical is that his canvassers come from the communities in which they work.

“You trust your neighbor more than a random person that you don’t know,” Nordlund said.

The trial over SB 7050 is set to run through Friday, and U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Walker announced plans to work through next weekend on admission of the voluminous number or proposed exhibits. Walker called it an “evidence extravaganza.”

Multi-Year Crackdown

The law specifies that third-party voter registration organizations cannot have employees or volunteers who are not citizens of the United States help people register to vote, even if they are legal residents. That same exclusion applies to convicted felons, making no allowance for people who have won restoration of their civil and voting rights.

The measure was among a multi-year crackdown by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature on access to the ballot that followed the 2020 presidential election and Donald Trump’s efforts to discredit the integrity of that election.

Organizations would be subject to $50,000 fines for every such person who collects forms. The law also prohibits retention of information about people they sign up to vote.

Also challenging the law is the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida State Conference of Branches and Youth units of the NAACP, Equal Ground Education Fund, Voters of Tomorrow Action, Disability Rights Florida, Alianza for Progress, and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans.

Named plaintiffs include Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the county supervisors of elections.

According to Norlund, his organization takes pains to ensure the integrity of its process, using a third-party vendor to conduct background checks on canvassers, including for criminal checks and, using the E-Verify system, that they are eligible to work in the United States, although not all are U.S. citizens.

“It’s hard to get a citizen to serve as a canvasser” given the difficulty of the job, which entails working outside in all weather conditions, Nordlund said.

Training

They go through a few days of training including role-playing to get comfortable with the real-life process, plus regular refresher training. They’re paid $20 per hour (and not a fee based on forms completed), he said.

Each is given 20 forms each morning and is expected to return each at the end of every day, to make sure no filled-in forms get lost, Norlund said.

The organization scrutinizes registration forms for completeness, including that the voter has declared his or her county of residence, and ships them via the U.S. Postal Service to the Florida Division of Elections, usually twice per week, Norlund said. It retains a scanned copy of these forms to verify any communications from the division.

Unidos paid $2,000 in fines in 2023 after being cited for turning over two forms to a county other than the one the registrant lived in during 2022, Norlund conceded. He blamed clerical errors. The group processed more than 35,000 forms during that cycle.

A $400 fine came in 2019 after the group was late in delivering five applications during the 2018 cycle, Norlund said; they had gotten stuck in a lockbox the group used to store them before delivery to election authorities. He didn’t know whether they were blocked from voting. The group processed 50,000 forms during that cycle, he said.

Josh Pratt, a private attorney representing Secretary of State Cord Byrd in the case, questioned the law’s burden. For example, he asked Norlund whether he knew whether those applicants might have registered through another organization. Norland said that he did not. The state also questioned how much harder the law makes training of canvassers, given that Unidos provides training every time it hires canvassers. Nordland replied that the organization now must take greater pains in that area.

Nordlund put the total number of votes Unidos has registered since launching these efforts in 2008 at 400,000, including updates to existing registrations to reflect, say, changes of residence.

The group cooperates closely with the secretary of state’s office. “Whatever they ask, we provide for them,” Norlund said.

Without the Unidos effort, “ultimately, there would be less Hispanic participation in the election,” Nordlund said.

Noncitizen canvassers are no less trustworthy than citizens. “They enjoy the job, they really want to work with us, they come back year after year,” Nordlund said, becoming like “family” members.