Never before has a form letter caused so many news articles, so many press releases. Florida recently enacted a variety of voting changes. Being a Section 5 state under the Voting Rights Act, the changes had to be submitted to the DOJ for approval, or to United States District Court. For reasons that are unclear, Florida submitted the changes to DOJ – where they will face a less friendly review than they would have in court. Democrats, including Florida Senator Bill Nelson, are salivating and badgering DOJ for action. In response to one such badger, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Nelson a letter saying: “The Department of Justice will carefully consider the information you have provided in the course of our enforcement and administrative review work under the Voting Rights Act.”
News flash: this is a form letter used in countless other responses. “Carefully consider” is what other Congressional letters on a Section 5 submission say. But don’t tell Dara Kam at the Palm Beach Post. Otherwise it will spoil the sizzling headline: Feds say they’ll look into FL elections law changes[!!!!!!!!]
Mark Matthews at the Orlando Sentinel also overstates the importance of the letter. In response to the Nelson letter, he writes Nelson made “a request agency officials said this week they would consider.”
News flash: under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the DOJ must review the submission anyhow.
This illustrates yet another benefit for states to go straight to United States District Court for approval of plans instead of to the DOJ – it removes politicians from the decision matrix. In court, a letter from a United States Senator will be thrown into the circular file, unless the Senator intervened in the case. If submitting authorities want to take politics out of the mix, like Senator Nelson’s involvement or the politics currently affecting the Louisiana redistricting, they would only submit plans or changes to the United States District Court. Some state somewhere may very soon find out that court was the better route to take on controversial voting changes.