Florida Judge: Voting Lawsuits Deserve Speedy Trials
With the election looming, a judge urged Friday a quick trial for a lawsuit against Florida's largest counties over the rejection of more than 10,000 voter registration forms that elections officials say were improperly filled out. A Miami lawsuit is challenging the process that lets counties disqualify people who provided a signature affirming their eligibility to vote but failed to list an identification number, such as from a driver's license, or check boxes affirming they were citizens, were mentally competent and were not felons. U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King noted a tight time frame before the Nov. 2 election made it essential to move quickly, but did not immediately set a trial date. A coalition of unions filed the suit against Secretary of State Glenda Hood and election supervisors in Duval, Orange, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. In Duval County, nearly 45 percent of the challenged forms came from blacks who want to vote. The Advancement Project, a Washington-based social action group that helped file the lawsuit, claimed that the voter registration practices had a disparate effect on minorities. [more 
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