Critics call it a major setback for voting rights. Last week the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, mobilizing the state's leading vote access group to criticize the ruling.
"It should be disturbing to every Florida voter that the Supreme Court seems not to have noticed what happened in Florida over the last two years, where we have battled the legislature's partisan manipulation of our voting rights," says Deirdre Macnab, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida.
"Florida is the poster child for why these voter protections are needed," she added, referencing the long lines and in some cases, eight-hour waits voters in some precincts endured in November of 2012.
With a 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The provision had mandated that counties and states with a history of racial discrimination were required to get pre-clearance from the federal government before implementing any changes to their voting laws. The high court says in the wake of decades of racial progress, it's now up to Congress to determine a new formula for federal oversight of voting.
Florida has 5 counties that had required preclearance from the federal government - Hillsborough, Hendry, Hardee, Monroe and Collier.
