Declaration of Charlotte Bernhardt

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I, Charlotte Bernhardt, declare as follows:

1. I am over the age of eighteen, and I am competent to make this 

declaration. I provide this declaration based upon my personal knowledge. I would 

testify to the facts in this declaration under oath if called upon to do so.

2. My address is 611 Fairway Court, Plant City, FL 33565. I am a 

resident of Hillsborough County, Florida. 

3. I am a teacher at a public school, Pasco High School, in Pasco 

County, a neighboring county to where I live. This is my third-year teaching at the 

high school, and I am very well-known at the school. I teach medical skills to high 

school students as a prerequisite for a nursing program. 

4. I attended medical school in Australia and returned to the United 

States sometime in May 2017. 

5. Prior to living abroad, I was a resident of Seattle, Washington which 

was the last place where I was registered to vote. 

6. I moved back to the state of Florida in May 2017, which is where my 

parents lived, to be close to my family. I have always taken voting very seriously, 

but my family situation was such that it absorbed all my time leaving me unable to 

complete the process in order to be registered to vote. 

7. Since returning to Florida, I tried to register to vote in person three

times. 

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8. The first time I went to register to vote I arrived promptly when the 

office opened but there was a very long line and a wait of over 3-4 hours. I waited 

for some time, but had a doctor’s appointment so decided to return another time. 

The second time I went, I was missing proof of address. The third time I went to 

register to vote, I arrived at the office after the 3PM deadline. Since then I have 

not had an opportunity to go back. 

9. My workday starts at 7:05AM and I have a 45 minute commute from the 

county I live in, to the public school where I teach, leaving me very little 

time to attempt to try to register to vote in-person. 

10. I knew online registration was an option, but because I am divorced 

and have kept my married name and lived abroad, I thought it would be best for me 

to register to vote in person to address the issues which may arise related to my 

prior residency and divorce.

11. After my three unsuccessful attempts to register in person, however, I 

decided to try to register online. I have tried to register online several times this 

year, but I kept getting the error message: “cannot validate.” These errors occurred 

whether I was attempting to register on my phone or my laptop. 

12. I suffer from vision problems, and I thought I may be misreading or 

mis-entering some information on the website. I had my boyfriend try to help me 

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as his vision is better than mine, but we still could not get the system to accept my 

information. 

13. I knew the deadline to register to vote was this past Monday, October 

5, 2020. On that day, I arrived home from work at around 6PM and decided to try 

to register to vote online again. Again, I tried both on my phone and my laptop but 

kept getting error messages. I saw online that there were a lot of people having the 

same issues so after a couple of hours of attempting to register, I figured there must 

be something wrong with the system. I later read online that advocacy groups were 

asking for a resolution and was under the impression a resolution would be 

forthcoming from the state. Since my attempts at registration were unsuccessful, at 

that point I decided to wait to see what the resolution from the state would be.

14. While at work my attention is focused on my students, not on my 

phone, and not on the internet. The next day after work, I went to visit my 

boyfriend and he advised that there had been an extension to the online voter 

registration, and I could register to vote. I went to the online registration website 

to try to register, but, again, I kept getting error messages. 

15. I felt extremely frustrated as there should be no reason why my 

identity could not be validated as a licensed public-school teacher and U.S. Citizen. 

16. I found an email address for seeking assistance with online voter 

registration and sent an email asking for help with the error message I had 

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encountered. I included a screen shot of the error messages I had been receiving 

and included a copy of my driver’s license, my date of birth, and last four of my 

social security number, and I advised the representative of my issues. 

17. I also tweeted two elected officials about my predicament of not being 

able to register vote in an effort to try to bring some attention to this my situation. 

18. A gentleman from the OVR office emailed me back. He explained 

what information I was missing that caused my registration not to validate. 

19. I was finally able to register to vote and felt so relieved, but 

unfortunately, the date stamp on my voter registration showed that it had been 

processed after 7PM. I emailed the OVR representative regarding my being 

eligible to vote in the 2020 general elections. The representative responded to me 

and advised that I would not be able to vote in the upcoming election since the 

extended deadline was 7PM on October 6, 2020.

20. I emailed the representative back to confirm that this may have been 

the case but explained that I had been trying to register since 5PM, and I requested

that an exception by made in my case.

21. On October 7, 2020 in the afternoon, the OVR office responded to my 

request of an exception stating “I’m sorry, but the extended deadline at 7pm on 

10/6/2020 is final unless authorized changes from the Governor of Florida office”. 

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22. I am extremely frustrated and upset by this situation. The extension 

granted was based on the system failures experienced on Monday, October 5th. 

The extension was not long enough as it did not provide sufficient time for a 

working American to go through the process, troubleshoot problems, and get the 

registration processed. A longer extension would have allowed me to vote in the 

Presidential Election this year.

23.Never did I guess the “resolution” offered by the state would be short and 

limited in duration and that the extension was not at least until midnight, if 

not an extra day longer in order to get voters an opportunity to be notified 

and educated on the extension. I was able to read today, Wednesday, 

October 7, 2020, that apparently DMV offices were open late last night until 

7pm which would have afforded me the opportunity in my work schedule to 

register to vote in person, thus avoiding these technical issues. 

Unfortunately, I did not know this information until it was too late. 

24.It is very frustrating to me that I am not going to be a part of a huge 

historical vote. I want to take part of this election cycle and exercise my 

right to vote as a U.S. citizen.

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

Executed on October 7, 2020 in Plant City, Florida. 

Charlotte Bernhardt____________________________

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From: BVRSHelp <BVRSHelp@DOS.MyFlorida.com>

Subject: RE: Was unable to register to vote.. please see attached....

Date: October 7, 2020 at 2:56:41 PM EDT

To: Charlotte Bernhardt <charlottefordoc@gmail.com>

Thank you for contacting the Florida Division of Elections. I’m sorry, but the extended deadline at 7pm 

on 10/6/2020 is final unless authorized changes occur from the Governor of Florida office.

Thank you,

R.C.

Florida Division of Elections

500 South Bronough Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399 

(866)308-6739 Voter Assistance Hotline

http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/

From: Charlotte Bernhardt <charlottefordoc@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 8:39 PM

To: BVRSHelp <BVRSHelp@DOS.MyFlorida.com>; OVRSupport <OVRSupport@dos.myflorida.com>

Cc: cbains@demos.org

Subject: Re: Was unable to register to vote.. please see attached....

EMAIL RECEIVED FROM EXTERNAL SOURCE

Dear Mr. JC and OVR,

That may have been the case, but the screenshot indicates a time stamp of before the deadline 

that I had this issue ongoing since 5 pm. Myself and another person did look at the application 

and I tried several times to register and it seems that a good faith effort before the deadline to 

have completed this should be met with some grace for the upcoming historical election.

Furthermore, as I work at a public high school I was unaware that the deadline was extended 

after yesterday’s crash and from the moment I heard of that on the news after arriving home at 5 

pm a until the moment I emailed your offices, I had been trying to register. 

Is there an exception of something that can be done?

Kindest Regards,

Charlotte

On Oct 6, 2020, at 8:15 PM, BVRSHelp <BVRSHelp@DOS.MyFlorida.com> wrote:

The deadline was 7:00pm local time on 10/06/2020.

Case 4:20-cv-00485-MW-MAF Document 26-1 Filed 10/07/20 Page 6 of 8
Thank you,

JC

From: Charlotte Bernhardt <charlottefordoc@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 8:12 PM

To: BVRSHelp <BVRSHelp@DOS.MyFlorida.com>; OVRSupport <OVRSupport@dos.myflorida.com>

Subject: Re: Was unable to register to vote.. please see attached....

EMAIL RECEIVED FROM EXTERNAL SOURCE

Thank you !!! I was able to register but am concerned... the time stamps is for 8:04 PM EST.. is 

that a valid registration or is it past the deadline? Online Voter Application Reference Number 

3679430. Please advice, and thank you!! 

On Oct 6, 2020, at 7:30 PM, BVRSHelp <BVRSHelp@dos.myflorida.com> wrote:

Thank you for contacting the Florida Division of Elections. In the screen shot you provided, you entered 

your date of birth for the “Florida DL Issued Date”. The Issued Date on the DL image you provided is 

03/03/2015. That is why you could not get verified.

The address on your driver license and the address for your voter registration do not need to match to 

complete your voter registration online and would not keep you from being verified.

Thank You,

JC Fishbough

Bureau of Voter Registration Services

Division of Elections

(866)308-6739 Voter Assistance Hotline

(877)868-3737 Voter Fraud Hotline

(850)245-6291 Fax

BVRSHelp@DOS.MyFlorida.com

This response is provided for reference only and does not constitute legal advice or representation. As applied to a particular set of facts or circumstances, 

interested parties should refer to the Florida Statutes and applicable case law, and/or consult a private attorney before drawing any legal conclusions or 

relying upon the information provided. Please note: Florida has a broad public records law. Written communications to or from state officials regarding 

state business constitute public records and are available to the public and media upon request unless the information is subject to a specific statutory 

exemption. Therefore, your e-mail message may be subject to public disclosure.

Case 4:20-cv-00485-MW-MAF Document 26-1 Filed 10/07/20 Page 7 of 8
From: Charlotte Bernhardt <charlottefordoc@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 7:15 PM

To: OVRSupport <OVRSupport@dos.myflorida.com>

Subject: Was unable to register to vote.. please see attached....

EMAIL RECEIVED FROM EXTERNAL SOURCE

To Whom It May Concern:

I have tried to register to vote online to no avail. My information, driver’s license, DOB and last 

4 of my social security number were correct but it stated the information could not be validated. I 

have moved to 611 Fairway Ct; Plant City, FL 33565 and needed to put the correct address plus 

needed to register a new registration because I was not found in the system for some reason. I am 

a public school teacher for Pasco County and even have a CCW permit from FL so am not 

certain why I cannot be found or validated. I have a right to vote and want to exercise that right, 

please and thank you. Please see the 2 screenshots below. One is what the website was telling me 

showing my correct information, and the other is my Florida Driver’s license. It would not even 

allow me to put in the correct or new address that is different from the FL driver’s license. Please 

help. Thank you!

Kindest Regards,

Charlotte Bernhardt

611 Fairway Ct

Plant City, FL 33565

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