JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — 10/10 Update: U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle rejected extending the voter registration deadline in a hearing late Wednesday.
“The solution is not a constitutional reworking of the deadline that the Florida Legislature set,” Hinkle said, according to the News Service of Florida.
He said the problem would not be solved by the court and potential voters can use cell phone service to register prior to Monday.
The deadline to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election has passed in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday he had no intention of extending that deadline to register despite many residents being forced to evacuate their homes due to Hurricane Milton approaching the Gulf Coast.
The deadline for voter registration was the end of the day Monday. Anyone not registered by that day will not be eligible to vote in the November election.
After Hurricane Helene, DeSantis signed an executive order to allow supervisors of elections in 13 counties affected by the storm to make appropriate changes to voting procedures.
Now however, DeSantis argued the state had no reason to extend the deadline and said residents could still register to vote by the end of the day Monday as the impact of Milton had not yet hit.
Many civil and voting rights organizations contacted federal court on Tuesday with complaints about the deadline.
The League of Women Voters of Florida and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a motion for emergency relief in the Northern District of Florida division. They are asking the court to force DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd to reopen the period for voter registration for at least 10 days.
The groups argue in their complaint that many of the ways voters would typically use to register have been inaccessible because of hurricanes Helene and Milton. They said that at least eight counties had been issued evacuation orders, with some of those happening on the morning of the registration deadline.
