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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE DIVISION

AUGUSTA SANDINO CHRISTIAN 

NAMPHY, DREAM DEFENDERS, 

NEW FLORIDA MAJORITY, 

ORGANIZE FLORIDA, and FLORIDA 

IMMIGRANT COALITION,

Plaintiffs,

v.

RON DESANTIS, in his official capacity 

as Florida Governor, and LAUREL M. 

LEE, in her official capacity as Florida 

Secretary of State,

Defendants.

Case No. 4:20-cv-485-MW-MAF

DECLARATION OF NICHOLAS RITCHEY

I, NICHOLAS RITCHEY, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, declare as follows:

1. I am over the age of 18 and fully competent to make this declaration. 

2. I am a 56-year-old African American man. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. 

I live in Liberty City in Miami-Dade County.

3. I am a painter. I paint exterior and interior walls. I own my own business. I have 

been working as a painter for the past 43 years.

4. On the evening of Monday, October 5, 2020 at or around 10:07 p.m. Eastern Time, 

I tried to register to vote online on my home desktop computer. The online voter registration 

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system kept giving me error messages. It kept asking me whether I was a robot. Then it would ask 

me to identify the traffic lights in the squares. Then it would kick me back to the first question: 

Are you a U.S. citizen? 

5. I took a video of these errors as they occurred. 

6. Because of these errors, I was not able to register to vote on Monday night.

7. On Tuesday, October 6, 2020, at or around 4:00 p.m., while I was at work in Corral 

Springs, I received a phone call from a volunteer advocate and attorney named Aidil Oscartz from 

New Florida Majority who told me there was an extension to the voter registration deadline until 

7:00 p.m. today. She encouraged me to go ahead and try again to register online.

8. Ms. Oscartz has been working with me to register to vote for about two months. I 

am a person with a felony conviction in my past. With Ms. Oscartz’s help, I learned that I currently 

do not owe any fines, fees, or restitution. Ms. Oscartz called the clerk of court on my behalf who 

confirmed that I do not owe any fines, fees, or restitution. Thanks to Amendment 4, I am eligible 

to register to vote and vote.

9. After Ms. Oscartz called me today, I took break from work to try to register to vote 

on my phone. I did not get the same error messages as last night. Instead, the message said I had 

to print out the form and mail it in.

10. I do not know why I got this “print form” message. My understanding is this “print 

form” screen pops up if there is a problem with your driver’s license or if you do not have a license. 

I have a valid Florida driver’s license.

11. I have a printer at home, but I was still working. I did not know where to go for a 

printer to print out the form in Corral Springs. 

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12. When I received that “print form” message, I thought, these are the games that the 

state is playing to get me not to vote. To get a lot of people not to vote. I almost got frustrated 

enough to say forget it, I am just not going to do it, but I decided to keep going. I am sure there are 

people out there who are hitting these print screens and error messages and saying, just forget it. 

13. Ms. Oscartz then contacted me again. She gave an address to a postal office that 

accepts mail until 9:00 p.m. – 2200 Northwest 72nd Avenue in Miami. She encouraged me to go 

home, print out the form, and drop it at this post office. 

14. However, I was still in Corral Springs at work. I did not feel I had enough time to 

get home from Corral Springs, print the form, and then drop it off at 72nd Avenue. She then 

suggested that I go home, print it out, sign it, and she was going to come by my house and take it 

to the post office herself, but we were not sure if she would make there on time either. We then 

discussed just trying to register again online, which we did. By this time, it was well past the 7:00 

p.m. deadline, but the site was still up, so we tried anyway. This time, I did not get the “print form” 

message. I also did not get the error messages from last night. 

15. It seemed like my voter registration application was accepted, but I won’t know for 

sure for several days. I did not receive an email confirmation or any confirmation that I tried to 

register to vote tonight. And without Ms. Oscartz’s help and encouragement, I would have given 

up when I received the “print form” message. I was lucky to have that help. Not everyone who 

wants to register has someone to tell them about the voter registration extension, help them 

navigate the online registration process, and figure out why they are getting errors. 

16. If my registration does not go through, I would like a court to override that and 

allow me to vote. If a court cannot override it, I want the court to extend the voter registration 

deadline so that I have time to do the online process again and print and mail in the form if I have 

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to. I want this for anyone who is eligible to vote but having problems registering to vote. To me, 

everyone who is clear, meaning everyone who has paid their fines, fees, restitution, and is eligible 

to vote should be allowed to vote.

17. I want to vote in this upcoming election. Voting is important to me because I do not 

like the way things are going right now in the country. I want something different for my children 

and grandchildren. It is a sad day when it seems time is going backward not forward for African 

Americans.

I declare, under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. 

Executed at Liberty City, Florida, on October 7, 2020. 

s/Nicholas Ritchey

Signature

Nicholas Ritchey ____________

Printed Name

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