Santa Rosa Teacher Faces Possible Elections Law Fine

November 2, 2011

A Santa Rosa County teacher faces what may be the first fine for someone for violating the new election law requirements related to registering voters.

Dawn Quarles faces a potential $1,000 fine for turning in voter resgistration applications for students more than 48 hours after they were signed, a violation of the new elections requirement passed earlier this year by the Legislature. Quarles teaches government at Pace High School, in Santa Rosa County.  The old time limit was 10 days.

The Associated Press reported that Secretary of State Kurt Browning wrote a letter asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the civil fine against Quarles.  One reason the state is going after Quarles for the violation is that she has at least one violation in the past, when the time limit was 10 days. Quarles told the AP that because of that, she made sure this year to get the applications in within 10 days – not knowing the time limit had changed.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

5 Responses to “Santa Rosa Teacher Faces Possible Elections Law Fine”

  1. Ridiculous on November 2nd, 2011 11:49 am

    What a ridiculous law!! Republicans are the ones behind this. What happened to our party’s platform of limited government? It seems like they’re all up in our business these days!

  2. Former Northend Student on November 2nd, 2011 11:35 am

    Correction from last post. …maybe some of her “students” will hold a drive to help her.

  3. Former Northend Student on November 2nd, 2011 11:33 am

    Pace HS is a big school so maybe some of her will hold a drive to help her pay the fine. I hope that she continues the drive and is not disheartened by the fine and negative publicity. It is important to teach students of the importance of voting and she is doing just that by holding the voter registration drive.

  4. Voter on November 2nd, 2011 6:07 am

    If you’re going to engage in voter registration activity, one should at least know the basic rules that cover it. Here we have a teacher who is trying to be a good civil servant and has violated these rules in the past. Quarles demonstrates that she hasn’t learned from her past election law mistakes, so she should receive at least 100 lashes with a wet noodle! $1,000 fine is a bit high for trying to get high school students registered to vote, but then again the rules are in place to prevent ACORN registration drives.

  5. David Huie Green on November 2nd, 2011 5:16 am

    REGARDING:
    “Quarles told the AP that because of that, she made sure this year to get the applications in within 10 days – not knowing the time limit had changed.”

    shifting targets

    at least she hit the one from last time this time