GOP Amps Up Voter Supression Effort in Florida

S

Satchel

2,500+ Posts
This effort is steeped in racism:

Battle Looms Over Florida’s Elections Bill
Parties gear up for fight over bill targeting voter fraud
By: Gray Rohrer | Posted: May 19, 2011 3:55 AM
Tags: Democratic National Committee, elections bill, Florida House, Florida Legislature, Florida Senate, Gov. Rick Scott, HB 1355, Miami-Dade County, News, Rep. Marcelo Llorente, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Government|2 comments

Credit: Shutterstock - Rob WilsonHide
A highly controversial bill, passed by the Legislature earlier this month and expected to be signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott at any moment, could mean all the difference in the 2012 presidential election.


State Republican lawmakers who passed HB 1355 say they want to eliminate the potential for voter fraud, but Democrats claim the bill is nothing more than a partisan pre-election attack aimed at disenfranchising left-leaning voters, and note that there have been no serious cases of voter fraud in Florida during the past two election cycles.

Democrats, who are grossly outnumbered at the state level, could do little to prevent the bill from passing the House and Senate on party line votes. On the national level, however, Democrats are alerting the Department of Justice about the bill and what they claim is its potential to hinder a citizen’s right to vote.

All six members of Florida’s congressional delegation, as well as U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, sent a letter Tuesday to the Department of Justice asking for a review of the bill. The review is enabled by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because of historic discrimination in five counties.

“We urge you to use the authority granted to the Department of Justice by the Voting Rights Act to review the impact of HB 1355 on the five Florida counties currently protected under Section 5 preclearance requirements. We are confident that any honest examination of this legislation will determine that it is in clear violation of the Voting Rights Act,” the letter reads in part.

HB 1355 decreases the number of days allowed for early voting from 14 to six. Democrats typically outnumber Republicans in early voting periods in Florida.

The bill also prevents voters who move outside their former county from changing their address on the day of an election (although there is an exemption for military members and their families), and imposes fines and restrictions on third-party voter registration groups. Democrats claim those provisions are aimed at college students and civic groups that look to register voters.

In their letter to the Department of Justice, Florida’s congressional Democrats said those provisions would have a “chilling effect” on voter registration in the Sunshine State.

The letter was initiated out of U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch’s office, but U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who was recently tapped by President Barack Obama to chair the Democratic National Committee and will help lead her party’s efforts to re-elect Obama, also signed it.

Scott has until Saturday to sign the elections bill, which will take effect immediately upon his signing it into law. He is widely expected to sign the bill, but when asked about it Tuesday, Scott said he was concerned about voter fraud, but it was still being reviewed by his office.

“The things I care about with regard to elections -- I want to make sure people have the opportunity to get out and vote. I want people to get out and vote and I don’t want fraud. That’ll be the filter I use in going through the bill,” Scott said.

Beyond national politics, HB 1355 also has the potential to affect local races in Florida already in progress. Scott is expected to sign the bill into law sometime this week, allowing Miami-Dade County to close early voting polls in the mayor’s race on Sunday.

The Miami-Dade County supervisor of elections' office has already sent out a public notice alerting citizens that there will be no early voting Sunday, although there will be extended hours Saturday.

Former Republican state Rep. Marcelo Llorente, a candidate in the Miami-Dade County mayor’s race, filed a complaint Wednesday with the 11th Judicial Circuit over the cancellation of early voting on Sunday, asking for an emergency hearing Thursday to reinstate the available voting hours.

“My interest is in the impact it’s having on the people of this county in the eleventh hour,” Llorente said. “Our county should be fighting (HB 1355) rather than defending it,” he added, noting that 2,000 early ballots were cast the previous Sunday.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is monitoring the bill, but even with one lawsuit filed against it at the local level, the elections bill is yet to become law, so her office's actions are limited. The Florida Department of State, tasked with enforcing the law, would be the first line of defense in the event of a federal lawsuit.



"We certainly are aware of all of it and we're keeping track of it, but at this point it's a little premature," Bondi spokesperson Jennifer Davis said.
The Link
 
In what way is this "steeped in racism"?

Are you a proponent of voter fraud?

Have Mickey and Donald been disenfranchised?

How do you feel about past Democratic efforts to block the counting of absentee voting from the military stationed overseas?
 
The link looks like it is for vehicle registrations. Gotta love Satchel.
wink.gif
 
The bill is long but it isnt a throw back to jim crow as described by the democrats. If you know anything about Florida, you know its election practices are historically corrupt. There is a major scandal every election cycle, especially in the local elections. The bill does make it more diffcult for groups like Acorn because it has provisions registering the person seeking the new voter registrations and the forms must include more information about the applicant. It also has provisions which require cross referencing these new registratins against death records so dead people can no longer vote. I can see why the democrats might be pissed. Here are some highlights:

Reduces the time for early voting from two weeks to 8 days, although local elections officials could extend voting hours for early voting sites open from six to 12 per day. This will save the state considerable money by reducing the days of have open voting locations. People still have a week to vote early and have the weekend. The republicans took out the provision requiring state troopers to police the election locations wearing white hoods.

Mandates that voters who have moved from one Florida county to another county use provisional ballots instead of regular ballots if they want to update their name or address at the polling place. Persons casting provisional ballots must later prove eligibility to vote for the ballot to count. This doesnt prevent people from voting. They just have to use provisional ballots.

Cuts the "life" of petition drive signatures for citizen petitions to place constitutional amendments on the ballot from four to two years. Not sure abolut this but it probably cuts down on paperwork and old files. two years should be plenty of time to get a petition.

Requires third-party voter registration groups to submit voter-registration cards within 48 hours (instead of the current 10) or face a $50 fine for each late form.
 
Here's the bottom line. Just over half of the blacks who voted in 2008 in Florida, did so by early voting. Republicans know this and they're out to stop it.
 
give me a break. a few days are being cut off and the hours are being extended at the discretion of the local election official. believe me satch, in areas were there may be more black people, the democratic election officials will keep their election locations open the full 12 hours. you can also mail in your vote. yep, clearly jim crow.
 
The florida poll on cutting costs of elections by reducing days to vote:

Likely voters in Florida overwhelmingly say that they would support reducing Florida’s early voting period from 15 days to 6 in order to save election costs, according to our latest statewide survey.

65% of respondents said they would strongly support a shorter early voting period, including supermajorities of both Republican and Democratic respondents, while just 8% of respondents were strongly opposed to the idea.

Men and women were almost equally likely to support a shorter early voting period. However, men were significantly more likely than women to be strongly supportive of the proposal.

Independent voters were in fact the least likely to support fewer early voting days, with 70% of those respondents supported the proposal, while 87% of Republicans and even 75% of Democrats supported it.

And finally, 84% of likely voters under the age of 50 supported fewer early voting days in order to cut elections costs, a stronger level of support than older voters. However, each of the age groups in our crosstabs were equally likely to strongly support fewer early voting days.
 
Here's the bottom line. Just over half of the blacks who voted in 2008 in Florida, did so by early voting. Republicans know this and they're out to stop it.
__________________________________________________

First, I'm calling bs on this stat. Early voting is a new deal in Florida. Florida didnt have it before the 2002 election but the Florida presidential election chaos resulted in them implementing it to avoid some of those issues. I guess the republicans want to hurt themselves because lots of old white people live in florida and they like to vote early. the republicans swept through and won everything in florida due in part to early voting. many more old white people vote early than black people in florida.
 
Ahhh I've missed these circular logic, fact-free assumptive threads. Good to see you back, Satch.

BTW, I'm curious how things go in NM - they just started investigating about 10 percent of the votes from the 2010 general election for potential voter fraud issues. I would imagine a lot of them will be data errors, but it will be interesting to see how many of them have to do with actual voter fraud - which according to many on this board simply doesn't happen in any meaningful way.
 
You don't really bother to read posts anymore, do you?
In any case, I'm not interested in debating the merits of the idea that it's OK to illegally register to vote so long as you don't actually vote (even though a lot of times there's really no way we can tell whether that actually happened or not...)

I'm also not interested in the "we know it's not happening because we're not prosecuting any cases of it" argument, which seems to be the primary go-to talking point.

Having said that, here's one:

The Link

In reply to:
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It's clear Florida is attempting to limit black voter turn out for the Negro.
__________________________________________________

You should go work for Rev Al. How come the hispanics are not complaining? Also, how does reducing the days to vote from 14-8 discriminate? Statistics in Florida from my post above show that an overwelmingly high percentage of democrats are for the proposal, 65% I think, to save costs on the elections.
 
They Want to Make Voting Harder?By The New York Times | Editorial

06 June 11



One of the most promising recent trends in expanding political participation has been allowing people to vote in the weeks before Election Day, either in person or by mail. Early voting, which enables people to skip long lines and vote at more convenient times, has been increasingly popular over the last 15 years. It skyrocketed to a third of the vote in 2008, rising particularly in the South and among black voters supporting Barack Obama.

And that, of course, is why Republican lawmakers in the South are trying desperately to cut it back. Two states in the region have already reduced early-voting periods, and lawmakers in others are considering doing so. It is the latest element of a well-coordinated effort by Republican state legislators across the country to disenfranchise voters who tend to support Democrats, particularly minorities and young people.

The biggest part of that effort, imposing cumbersome requirements that voters have a government ID, has been painted as a response to voter fraud, an essentially nonexistent problem. But Republican lawmakers also have taken a good look at voting patterns, realized that early voting might have played a role in Mr. Obama's 2008 victory, and now want to reduce that possibility in 2012.

Mr. Obama won North Carolina, for example, by less than 15,000 votes. That state has had early voting since 2000, and in 2008, more ballots were cast before Election Day than on it. Mr. Obama won those early votes by a comfortable margin. So it is no coincidence that the North Carolina House passed a measure - along party lines - that would cut the early voting period by a week, reducing it to a week and a half before the election. The Senate is preparing a similar bill, which we hope Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, will veto if it reaches her.

Republicans said the measure would save money, a claim as phony as saying widespread fraud necessitates ID cards. The North Carolina elections board, and many county boards, said it would actually cost more money, because they would have to open more voting sites and have less flexibility allocating staff members. Black lawmakers called it what it is: a modern whiff of Jim Crow.

More than half of the state's black votes were cast before Election Day, compared with 40 percent of the white votes. A similar trend was evident elsewhere in the South, according to studies by the Early Voting Information Center, a nonpartisan academic center at Reed College in Oregon. Blacks voting early in the South jumped from about 13 percent in 2004 to 33 percent in 2008, according to the studies, significantly outpacing the percentage of whites.

One of the biggest jumps was in Georgia, where, over the objections of several black lawmakers, the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a bill in April that would cut back in-person early voting to 21 days, from 45 days. Florida just cut its early voting period to eight days, from 14. Florida also eliminated the Sunday before Election Day as an early-voting day; election experts note that will eliminate the practice of many African-Americans of voting directly after going to church.

Outside the region, the Republican-dominated Legislature in Ohio, a perennial battleground state, is about to restrict early voting, a move that Democrats say amounts to voter suppression and discrimination.

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of early voting, a relic from the days when everyone seemed to agree that more voters were better for democracy. Republicans have recently decided that a larger electorate can hurt them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

NEW: Pro Sports Forums

Cowboys, Texans, Rangers, Astros, Mavs, Rockets, etc. Pro Longhorns. The Chiefs and that Swift gal. This is the place.

Pro Sports Forums

Recent Threads

Back
Top