Republicans Narrow Florida Voter Registration Gap In The Wake Of Unconstitutional Law

In 2011, an unconstitutional Florida law took effect forcing voter registration groups to comply with onerous new restrictions or face fines. As a result, new Democratic voter registrations ground to a halt — slowing to just over 5 percent of the rate of new Democratic registrations in the last two presidential election cycles.

Although a federal court eventually struck down the unconstitutional restrictions on voter registration, the law succeeded in boosting the GOP’s prospects for the upcoming election during the months that it was in effect. During the 2008 election, there were 657,775 more registered Democrats in Florida than Republicans. A study conducted last August found that the Democratic advantage shrunk to 445,794 registered voters in the wake of the unconstitutional restrictions on registration, and it has now only recovered to an advantage of 535,987 registered voters.

So, in the wake of an unconstitutional law intended to make it harder to register voters, Republicans closed their voter registration gap by over 120,000 voters — even though the courts eventually struck down this unconstitutional law. As it turns out, even when voter suppression laws are eventually struck down, they can still work significant mischief in the interim.