Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
ATLANTA — Two federal judges have rejected requests to immediately reopen voter registration in Georgia and Florida as the southeast continues to grapple with significant storm damage ahead of the November election.
Southern states impacted by Hurricane Helene have been facing intense pressure by voting and civil rights groups to give residents more time to register to vote given the devastation wrought by the storm and the disruption already caused by Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Florida's western coast late Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta ruled on Thursday that arguments pushed by the NAACP, Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and the New Georgia Project asking to extend the deadline a week "lacked clarity and detail" as to how specific individuals were harmed.
Attorneys for Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both of whom are Republicans — argued there would be a significant "administrative burden" on the state's elections offices if the voter registration deadline were to be extended.
Ruling from the bench, Ross agreed, saying, "Harms to the state's interest outweighs the interest of the plaintiffs."
"The plaintiffs haven't pointed to any statute or authority that the defendants had to extend the deadline," said Ross, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. "We did not hear from anyone specifically who could not register to vote."
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida similarly turned down a request from civil rights groups to reopen that state's voter registration window, which closed on Monday just as the state was recovering from Hurricane Helene and bracing for Hurricane Milton.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, declined the request a day after the case was brought by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the Florida NAACP.
The groups had argued that the Oct. 7 deadline was "sandwiched between two life-threatening obstacles" that forced some residents to choose between seeking safety from the hurricanes and signing up to vote.
Without an extension, attorneys for the groups wrote in court papers, prospective voters "will be deprived of that fundamental right because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, the threat to safety caused by Hurricane Milton, and the resultant shutdown of all means of voter registration, including government offices, roads, the internet, and the Postal Service twice within the last weeks leading up to the voter registration deadline."
As Florida was preparing for Milton on Monday, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that there's "nothing inhibiting" unregistered voters from registering ahead of the deadline later that day.
"People can register today, and then that's that. There's nothing inhibiting your registering today. The storm has not hit yet," DeSantis said Monday during a press conference in response to a question about whether the storm would provide any flexibility in registration.
"Now, after the storm, we will see what damage is there. And if I have to do a similar executive order that I did in (Hurricane) Ian and then I did for Helene, we're happy to do it. But we're not going to change any registration deadline. You can register today, and there doesn't need to — there's no reason to open that up," the governor said.
