A federal judge has refused the state’s request to delay a lawsuit challenging a controversial 2011 elections law that reduced the number of days of early voting.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner had sought to put the lawsuit on hold, saying the Legislature might make early-voting changes during this spring’s session that would resolve the issues. But plaintiffs in the case, led by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., opposed the delay. U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan issued an order that said Detzner’s hope that lawmakers will take care of the concerns about early voting is “too tenuous a basis” to issue a stay in the case. Also, Corrigan wrote that the case is at an early stage procedurally and that lawmakers would likely have the opportunity to act before he rules on the 2011 law.
“As plaintiffs correctly assert, it is uncertain whether the Florida Legislature will take any action concerning Florida’s early voting laws, whether that action will ultimately become law, and, if so, whether such amendments will address the matters at issue in the lawsuit,” Corrigan wrote.
The judge in September declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the law, but that did not end the case.
Via the News Service of Florida
