Democrats, civil rights groups push to extend voter registration in swing states battered by hurricanes

Weeks out from the November election after two hurricanes, Democrats and civil rights groups in various states, including battleground states Democrats and Republicans covet, have launched lawsuits to extend voter registration deadlines.

Just this week in Georgia, where the voter registration deadline was Monday, civil rights groups were denied motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. 

The Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda and Stacey Abrams' New Georgia Project filed their initial complaint against Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party Oct. 7, arguing that not extending the deadline violates voters' rights. 

Secretary Raffensberger's office responded to the court's decision in a statement, saying "We agree with Judge Ross, who said, ‘I don’t think we had even one voter who had been harmed or would likely be harmed by failure to register to vote.'" 

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The secretary also held a press conference shortly after the hurricane to announce various measures taken by the state to ensure citizens could make it to the ballot box. 

In Florida, District Judge Robert L. Hinkle denied a motion to issue a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction to block the Oct. 7 deadline and extend registration another 10 days.

The suit was initially filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida Tuesday by multiple civil rights groups — the League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund and the Florida chapter of the NAACP — against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd. It alleged the failure to extend the deadline places an "undue burden on the right to vote in violation of the First Amendment" and the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. 

They alleged the registration deadline also favors Florida voters unaffected by the hurricanes. 

Republican election lawyer Jason Torchinsky noted that requests seeking to extend the voter registration deadline in Florida are anything but uncommon, stating they "are routinely denied." In Georgia, however, Torchinsky predicted extending the voter registration deadline would have made little difference, if any, given the state's registration rate. 

Kaivan Shroff, a Democratic political commentator, and Greta Bedekovics, associate director of Democracy Policy at the left-wing Center for American Progress, both specifically targeted DeSantis and Kemp. 

"It seems like Republican governors Kemp and DeSantis are trying to play partisan politics and prevent people from exercising their voting rights in the wake of these tragic natural disasters," Shroff told Fox News Digital.

"However, I’m not sure that will be the case this time because when you look at urban centers like Tampa, they’ve been trending red in recent years." 

"Governors in states like Georgia and Florida have issued emergency policy orders in the past, expanding voting and registration options in the aftermath of a hurricane, including during the 2022 election cycle. There is no reason that cannot be similarly done this year," Bedekovics told Fox News Digital. 

Mark Ard, director of external affairs for the Florida Department of State, cheered Judge Hinkle's decision, telling Fox News Digital in a statement that Florida's voter registration system has been operating around the clock since the 2022 election, giving voters ample time to register to vote. 

"The Department of State and supervisors of elections across the state noticed and published the Oct. 7, 2024, date. The state has a substantial interest in maintaining deadlines created by the legislature," the statement said. "We’re happy to see that the court ruled for the state of Florida by recognizing the substantial state interest in maintaining the voter registration deadline and denying the plaintiffs’ attempt to alter Florida law."

Cecile M. Scoon, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, a plaintiff in the case, expressed disappointment in the ruling, saying the lawsuits are not politically motivated. 

"We've been bringing those kind of lawsuits for years. So, how is it political?" Swoon told Fox News Digital. "Before any of the parties were running for office, we were bringing these lawsuits.

"So, we have a history of being concerned about voters, regardless of how they vote. And, frankly, I do a lot of voter registration, and a lot of people that, when I work hard to get voter registration, many of them, probably more than 50%, are registering to vote for Trump. They say so." 

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Fox News Digital also spoke with Chad Ennis, vice president of the conservative nonprofit Honest Elections Project, who noted that several of the lawsuits were filed close to the state's voter registration deadline, saying the judges who declined to extend the registration period made "the right rulings given the time frame."

"I hate to say it is politically motivated, although the left always wants voter registration up until the day of the election," Ennis said. "In a lot of cases, during COVID, they used COVID as an excuse to change deadlines and, unfortunately, they also tried to use the hurricanes to change the deadlines here."  

Leslie Marshall, a Democratic strategist, told Fox News Digital she thinks the denial to extend voter registration could actually negatively affect Republicans come November. 

"Because this race is so close and because Donald Trump and Republicans have made, not gains with women, but they have made gains with African Americans — specifically, male African Americans — they may be shooting themselves in the foot with this ruling," Marshall said.   

On the other hand, Democrats in South Carolina were successful in their legal maneuvers after the South Carolina Democratic Party (SCDP) sued the South Carolina Elections Commission, and a circuit court judge ruled to extend the registration deadline to Oct. 14. 

"We are pleased the voter registration deadline has been extended. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an issue of the public good and ensuring the right to vote is protected for everyone," said SCDP Chair Christale Spain.

South Carolina Election Commission public information officer John Michael Catalano said the commission was "able to comply with the order with minimal impact to election administration. We don’t anticipate this causing any issues for voters during early voting or on Election Day."

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key Wednesday night, leaving around 3.2 million people in Florida alone without power by Thursday afternoon. Milton came in as a Category 3 storm, just a few weeks after Hurricane Helene battered parts of Florida before devastating North Carolina.