Beach Peanuts

Florida Legislature's Newly Proposed Election Laws Could Cost Members Of The Military Their Vote

Under the guise of making changes to the voting laws they enacted last year that caused so many problems during the 2012 election, Republicans in the Florida Legislature are finding new ways to potentially suppress the vote in the next one.

This time it's a move that could cost members of the military, among others, their vote due to the potential for uncounted absentee ballots through additional paperwork and an easily overlooked witness requirement for signatures:

Latvala's [Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater] bill drew a rating of "B" from the League of Women Voters of Florida, whose president, Deirdre MacNab, called the bill "strong." She said the bill would be better if it repealed the 2011 requirement that voters who move from one county to another cast provisional ballots.

The Senate bill's most controversial provision remains a requirement that any voter who casts 
an absentee ballot has to get another adult to witness the voter's signature. "That is just a recipe for disaster," said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley. His sentiments were echoed at Tuesday's Senate hearing by elections chief Paul Lux in Okaloosa County, where, he predicted, the ballots of many military personnel would be rejected.

"There's  no tangible benefit to the voter, and this provision will result in more ballots being not counted for our military members," Lux testified.

Elections supervisors say this will likely result in numerous absentee ballots being thrown out if it passes. There's also the potential for lost votes not only from the military, but college students as well. The bill also falls short of increasing adequate days for early voting as promised.

Related articles

Surprise! More Voter Suppression Coming From The Florida Legislature

Statewide Rallies Make The Case For True Election Reform

Another Rick Scott Scandal, Gone But Not Forgotten

Florida Legislature's Newly Proposed Election Laws Could Cost Members Of The Military Their Vote

Why The GOP "Autopsy" Should Actually Be Called The "Government Outsourcing Project"

David Koch, Fleeing The Press At The RNC, Tampa 2012

(Photo: Martha Jackovics)

If you've read the GOP's "autopsy" of their losses in the 2012 election (re-branded as the "Growth and Opportunity Project") but haven't come to the conclusion that it's mostly nonsense just yet, this could do it for you.

One of the things that stood out for me was a small section buried in the Campaign Finance, and State Campaign and Finance Laws and Regulations recommendations. It's just a couple of sentences, but it's in conflict with a majority of the other recommended policies in the report. Or rather, what they would have people believe they want to do to woo voters.

Here's the snippet, which is listed twice, word for word, on pages 69 and 97:

3. Model legislation should be developed by interested organizations and state legislative leaders to improve state campaign finance laws. Organizations such as the RNC, the RSLC, and ALEC may wish to take a leading role. To turn ideas to action nationwide, experts should develop model statutes that can be replicated across states.

The two paragraphs are identical, almost as if they were a cut and paste job from something like, oh, I don't know, an ALEC "model" maybe?

If you're not already familiar with ALEC, that's the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the corporate funded group who work with lobbyists and conservative politicians to write the "model legislation" that legislators then bring home to their states and pass into law. They get a large amount of their funding from the Koch brothers. (I've written more about them and their involvement in Florida here, here, here, here, here, and here, just to link a few of those posts.) ALEC has brought Florida laws like the Stand Your Ground gun law, election laws, and were behind many of the Amendments on the 2012 ballot. That's just a small sample.

ALEC largely operated in secret, and many elected officials passing off their cut and paste legislation did too. But when ALEC's behind the scenes operations were exposed to a little sunlight, corporations who had quietly worked with them began getting push back from activists, angry consumers and voters. Many of them quit working with ALEC because of it.

But there are plenty of those who still work with ALEC, lawmakers, and work "for" Koch, and not in the best interest of voters and consumers.

According to the GOP's new recommendations, they're practically saying they are fully prepared to hand over governing to ALEC, and the Koch's for a price. No more secret dealings. They're indicating right there in black and white for everyone to see that they're willing to sell out the country. "ALEC may wish to take a leading role?" There's no "may" about it. They want the whole ball game and the GOP knows that. They've already made a big investment as it is. 

Shamelessly outsourcing "Democracy." Welcome to the GOP's real model for America.

It's not like many of us weren't already aware that it was really the Koch brothers and corporate America who were pulling our elected officials strings, but this is blatant. It's like the GOP is saying: "Yeah, you actually elected the Koch brothers, corporations and lobbyists, and guess what? From now on we're just going to cut to the chase and hand everything over to them for a price. We're going to let them write any old law they want. Hey, it's not like we work for a living anyway, and we certainly don't know what we're doing. Now excuse us while we jet off for another taxpayer funded vacation." Boom. No pretense about it anymore.

And of course, who is behind a lot of the laws and policies that earned the Republican Party losses in the last few elections? That's right, all of the above.

So while they claim they're going to change their ways and tinker with their policies and their messaging, the biggest "message" of all is really contained in that one little paragraph found on pages 69 and 97. Combined with even more leeway in campaign finance laws, that pretty much cancels out the rest of the report as merely window dressing.

Any questions?

Surprise! More Voter Suppression Coming From The Florida Legislature

So much for those promises of "election reform" from Florida Republicans. Yesterday the Senate pushed even more restrictions on voting:

...the GOP-crafted bill has two major provisions that worry election supervisors: a requirement that anyone voting absentee must have an adult witness their signature, and a requirement that anyone who wants an absentee ballot mailed to an address other than their voting address must fill out an affidavit.

"This is going to impact seniors, students and our military voters," said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley. He predicted that the witness requirement would result in a surge of uncounted absentees because voters would not follow the new step.

In other words, they're "improving" on the voter suppression tactics from last year's "reform." More paperwork, and more hoops to jump through in order to exercise the right vote. Just what we needed!

In Florida, election reform means making it difficult for students, who tend to vote for Democrats, "supporting the troops" fighting for their right to vote by making it harder for them to do so, and saving seniors like 102-year-old Desiline Victor the hassle of waiting hours in long lines to vote by keeping her from lines altogether. Force her to spend all that time on endless paperwork instead. Problem solved!

Nice touch, GOP.

Democrats tried, but failed, to get some of what Republicans had claimed would be part of the new reforms:

Democrats tried to mandate 14 days of early voting at 12 hours a day, including the "Souls to the Polls" Sunday immediately before the election. That failed, and the bill calls for a minimum of eight days of early voting at eight hours a day.

...Democrats tried to add as early voting sites "any suitable location," and that failed too.

...Democrats tried to repeal a provision in law that requires out-of-county voters to cast provisional ballots on Election Day. 

So in sum, the GOP dominated legislature spent last year making it harder to vote, which did as promised, then Scott spent taxpayer money to "study" what went wrong, and upon the "discovery" of those errors, Republicans in the legislature are proceeding to build on last year's voter suppression tactics.

The more things change, the more they stay the same the worse they get.

GOP's "Autopsy" Reveals They All Want To Be As Awesome At Governing As Rick Scott Is

GOP RIP

In their newly released "Growth and Opportunity Project" yesterday, one of the recommendations the Republican Party made for themselves was that they need to stop talking only "to each other." Yes, that was an obvious problem for them in the 2012 election. From Dick Morris, to Mitt Romney, to Karl Rove, they were shocked, shocked that they didn't win in a landslide because they spent the entire election in the FOX and "skewed" polling bubble.

Behold, the "wisdom" of GOP afterthought:

The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue. 

Right. They haven't been forceful enough to the majority yet, while attempting to destroy the country. But I digress...

Here's another shocker. They're still just talking to themselves....in their own report. In fact, they even did so before getting to that section above.

Consider this tone deaf revelation from their "autopsy":

At the federal level, much of what Republicans are doing is not working beyond the core constituencies that make up the Party. On the state level, however, it is a different story.

Republicans hold governorships in 30 states with 315 electoral votes, the most governors either party has had in 12 years, and four short of the all-time GOP high of 34 governors who served in the 1920s. 

Republican governors are America’s reformers in chief. They continue to deliver on conservative promises of reducing the size of government while making people’s lives better. They routinely win a much larger share of the minority vote than GOP presidential candidates, demonstrating an appeal that goes beyond the base of the Party.

It is time for Republicans on the federal level to learn from successful Republicans on the state level. It is time to smartly change course, modernize the Party, and learn once again how to appeal to more people, including those who share some but not all of our conservative principles.

First of all, most of those Republican governors were elected in 2010, and since they began governing on those "conservative promises," buyer's remorse quickly set in. Sure, they're still in office because states are stuck with them until the next election. I wouldn't exactly put that factor in the "win" column just yet.

Among those falling under the "tanking in the polls column" is Gov. Rick Scott. He's a classic GOP case on how not to govern, and was so even before this latest poll from Public Policy Polling:

In four hypothetical match-ups, Scott trails Charlie Crist by 12 points (40/52), Pam Iorio by 7 points (37/44), Alex Sink by 5 points (40/45) and leads Nan Rich by 6 points (42/36). Crist takes a whopping 29% of the Republican vote against Scott, exactly in line with PPP’s January poll of the Florida governor’s race.

Scott’s abysmal -24 job approval rating (33/57) is also exactly in line with the results from PPP’s January poll. Scott barely has the approval of his own party—Republicans approve of his job performance by a slim 46/42 margin. 52% of Democrats, 44% of independents and 18% of Republicans think Scott is too conservative. 

Yes, that's even after he backed down by accepting Medicaid expansion in Florida. No doubt he assumed that being forced to "do the right thing" as he calls it now, might have come with a silver lining. It didn't. Nor did his about-face proclaiming his new love of teachers and education. His assumption that Florida teachers were stupid enough not to see through his sudden interest in actually paying them a little more was a bad one. 

Ask the average Floridian if they think Rick Scott is "making their lives better" or if he's "appealing to those who don't share his conservative principles." Or rather, ask them after they stop laughing. Or crying. 

But sure GOP, keep believing what you're telling yourselves. Keep believing in those pipe dreams, skewed polls, and that blind adoration of the bubble-heads at FOX telling you just how awesome you are. 

May you, along with Rick Scott, head off into the sunset in 2014, scratching your heads along the way, wondering what coud have possibly have gone wrong...

Employees Of Firm That Florida GOP Hired Admit To Voter Fraud

Employees of the consulting firm that the Republican Party of Florida hired in 2012 to do voter registration have admitted they forged registration forms according to an ongoing voter fraud investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The firm, Strategic Allied Consulting was hired by the RPOF who paid them over $1.3 million to sign up voters until forms that were questionable turned up. The RPOF then fired them, but the company claimed it was only a few bad apples who were responsible. Strategic Allied Consulting was also hired to do the same in Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. They were also hired by the Republican National Committee.

Nathan Sproul who runs Strategic Alliance Consulting, has a history with voter fraud allegations, and after the Republican National Committee also dumped Strategic Alliance over the Florida allegations, Strategic Alliance put out this statement:

"When the Republican Party of Florida chose to make likely libelous comments about our effort and stated that the Republican National Committee suggested us as the vendor, the RNC was put in the unenviable position of ending a long-term relationship for the sake of staying focused on the election," the company stated. 

The only problem is that the RNC knew all about Sproul's history when they hired, and subsequently dumped him. He was hired by the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 for a voter registration drive, then under a firm named Sproul and Associates, he was hired by the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, and  Mitt Romney's campaign also hired him in 2011.

On top of all the back and forth finger pointing between Strategic Alliance Consulting, the RPOF and the RNC, there's also this bit of information (Emphasis mine): 

Sproul said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the RNC's request because the party wanted to avoid being publicly linked to the past allegations. The firm was set up at a Virginia address, and Sproul does not show up on the corporate paperwork.

"In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company's name, so as to not be a distraction from the false information put out in the Internet," Sproul said.

The investigation of Strategic Alliance Consulting, according to the FDLE, is not over yet. There are still four more cases pending in Florida.

For all the Republican's ranting over phantom voter fraud, it turns out the real "ACORN boogieman" is actually currently named Strategic Allied Consulting.

Statewide "Free The Vote" Rallies In Florida Tomorrow: Find One Near You

Tomorrow, as the Florida Legislative Session begins, Awake The State "Free The Vote" rallies will be taking place all over Florida to call attention to the election laws that made us a laughingstock, and made voting extremely difficult, if not impossible for many last November. 

In spite of Gov. Scott, and election officials claims to want to "reform" the laws that they created that caused the mess in the first place, their proposals so far don't go nearly far enough to correct the damage they've already done.

From Awake The State:

We're rallying in communities throughout Florida on March 5th, the opening day of the 2013 legislative session, to fight back against laws that left many Floridians waiting hours in line to exercise their right to vote. Together, we'll begin an effort to free our elections and ensure our middle class priorities are heard.

Click on this link to find the rally closest to you.

They've Only Just Begun: Rick Scott And Republicans Are Killing Florida

If you live in Florida, you already know much of the story published in this month's Mother Jones: What's It Like to Wake Up From a Tea Party Binge? Just Ask Florida!

The horrors of reality for just a few of the many in Florida who don't have health insurance in graphic detail are just one part of the story, and it will likely only get worse as Florida has just been given the go ahead for privatizing Medicaid, provided that it's done with "transparency." If it weren't such a serious undertaking with potentially deadly consequences, the talk of such "transparency" would be a sick joke, given the state's more recent track record, but in Rick Scott's Florida, Inc., there's nothing funny about it. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but in this case it's dark enough to be the plot of a Stephen King novel. Given that King is a part-time Florida resident himself, I would imagine he might agree:

Take a man who ran a company that was dealt the largest fine in history for Medicare fraud, and who made a career out of preventing people from obtaining affordable health care, elect him as governor of a state chock-full of retirees, not to mention Republican and Tea Party lawmakers, give him free reign to run the state "like a business" and oh, while you're at it, put him in charge of privatizing Medicaid after he spent most of his time in office saying no to the same until he he was able to control it. So yes, truth is worse than fiction. After all, while he fights against your ability to get good health care without going bankrupt to do so, he pays less than $400 a year for his own. 

Nice benefits, if you can get them. But you can't. You aren't Rick Scott, or one of his puppets in the legislature. Membership has its privileges.

Of course, the Mother Jones piece is only the beginning of the story, and many chapters are yet to be written. We're almost two years out from the next election and the chance to be rid of Scott and those Republicans. The only problem is, at the rate they're going, we may not be afforded that opportunity. If you take a look at some of what they tried to do in last year's legislative session, but failed, look at this year's agenda and you'll soon discover they haven't given up hope. 

They botched the 2012 election in spite of rewriting the election laws, but now with promises of "reform" they probably won't make that mistake again if we let them. Anyone who pays attention to the Republican-Tea Party "business model" knows that "reform" has an entirely different meaning for them than it does for the rest of the world. (They're already taking "field trips" to voting equipment centers.) But there's lots to come between now and that election. Here's just a few of the things they've put on the table this year:

Giving Scott more power to pick judges. Today the House will take up a measure that gives the governor more control over judicial nominating commissions. Last year a similar measure passed in the House, but failed in the Senate. 

"Is our children learning yet?" Much like "reform," the phrase "parental choice" isn't what it sounds like when it comes to schools. Last year, the controversial "parent trigger" bill failed after a tough fight. Unfortunately it's back this year, and Democrats say this time they can't stop it. As if he hadn't done enough damage to education here already, the Jeb Bush charter school privatization model will take root with Republican's help. Any hope of students learning how to do something other than take tests is now merely a dream for previously hopeful parents. Ka-ching.

Ethics? Again, not what you think it means. Delay the time frame to step out of elected office and immediately into a private lobbying firm? The Senate is all for it.......no, just kidding! And again, Ka-ching.

Domestic partnership rights? Sorry, you'll likely have to find a state that has moved on from the stone age. But those in Florida who speak out against it "pray for you." So there's that....

Court orders are nothing to sneeze at....unless you're in Orange County. In that case, they are ignored, especially if they involve a bill giving workers paid sick time. Spoiler alert, it's not exactly the "happiest place on earth" to work.

A wage you can live on? No, Orange County also says "no" to a living wage for the trouble of working while sick. (But bless you!)

The low cost of doing business. Tax giveaways to those "job creators" whether they create them or not, and if so, whether they pay a living wage if you're sick or not? You can probably bank on it, in spite of Rick Scott's track record.

Like clean water? Too bad, you're out of luck again this year, and for years to come unless things change. Take it from former Governor Bob Graham. 

State Parks? Ditto.

Scott's goodie bag: The "Families First" budget. Yes, he's up to his old tricks what with his fuzzy math and education shell games, and Democrats are crying foul. 

But then it's what we've come to expect from Rick Scott: Very little.

Of course it goes without saying, this year we'll probably see plenty of bills that allow abortions for no one, but guns for everybody, because that's just how the Republican-Tea Party rolls these days.

Those are just a scant few of the items up for this year. I've barely scratched the surface.

Now about that "election law reform......"

On March 5th, find an Awake The State "Free The Vote Rally" near you, here. 

Bill Nelson Backs Bill That Would Prevent Long Lines That 102-Yr-Old Desiline Victor Had To Endure To Vote In Florida

In December of last year, following the disastrous election debacle in Florida, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) filed a bill to limit long lines and wait times in states where people stood for hours waiting to cast their votes.

Today Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) signed on as a co-sponsor to Boxer's bill that will set a national goal of a maximum of a one-hour wait at any polling place during federal elections:

“In the interest of fairness and to avoid undermining the credibility of our elections, we should be making voting more convenient, not more difficult,” Nelson said in a press release today. “People should not have to stand in line for hours to exercise a basic right, not in a Democracy like ours.”

[The Boxer bill would require the U.S. attorney general to issue new national standards by Jan. 1, 2014 regarding the minimum number of voting machines, election workers and other election resources necessary to hold federal elections. And it would require that minimum standards take into account the number of eligible voters, recent voter turnout, the number of new voter registrations, Census data for each polling place and the socio-economic makeup of the voting population.

Meanwhile, one of those who waited in line for over three hours in Miami-Dade, 102-yr-old former farm worker Desiline Victor will be the guest of First Lady Michelle Obama tonight at the State of the Union address.

From the Advancement Project:

Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old woman from North Miami, will attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama. During the 2012 elections, Victor waited in line to vote for three hours before wearily leaving her polling place and returning a second time. Her courageous story represents America’s determined voters, as well as a broken election infrastructure in need of serious reform.

Fixing the problems in the nation’s voting system, which contributed to outrageously long lines and wait times of more than six hours, will be among the themes of the president’s speech.

Born in Haiti in 1910, Victor is a naturalized citizen and retired farmworker who set out to take advantage of Florida’s early voting period last October. When she arrived at her polling place, a local library, on the morning of October 28, wait times were already up to six hours. Determined to cast her ballot, Victor stood in line for three hours until citizen advocates complained that the elderly woman struggled on her feet.

A poll worker asked her to come back later that day, assuring her that she would not have to wait then. On Victor’s second visit that evening, she was finally able to vote – and emerged from the building to wild cheers and applause from the crowd of waiting voters.

Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of Advancement Project, a civil rights group that met Victor while doing voter protection advocacy work, and brought her to Washington this week, pointed out that tens of thousands of other Americans did not get to vote, after facing similar problems at the polls. “Citizens who take responsibility to carry out their civic duty are still not guaranteed their right to vote in this country,” said Browne Dianis. “And while Ms. Victor’s determination to make her voice heard was heroic, she should never have had to wait in line for more than three hours to do it. These problems could be fixed with federal voting standards, including early voting and modernized registration, to ensure that elections are free, fair and accessible. Currently we have 123,000 different jurisdictions who run elections 13,000 different ways”

Gihan Perera, executive director of Florida New Majority, a statewide civil rights organization that recently released policy recommendations for election reform to the Florida legislature, said, “Ms. Victor represents the kind of heroines and heroes that we had in Florida, who, despite the legislative obstacles put in their way, came out in droves and exercised their human and constitutional right to vote. What needs to be done now is to honor those efforts by restoring the public confidence in our voting system and ensuring that democracy works for all.”

Local groups are planning a welcome home on Wednesday with signs, flowers and balloons at the airport where she is expected to speak along with community leaders  who are pushing for changes in Florida’s electoral system.    

GOP Seeks To Give Rick Scott More Power Over Election He's In Danger Of Losing

"No Pressure"

I touched on this briefly in a post yesterday, but it's a revelation so blatantly appalling that it really deserves it's own post.

It surfaced when Secretary of State Ken Detzner informed the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee that on election day last November, some elections supervisors management was so poor that it could have led to Rick Scott actually removing them. Detzner told them:

“Without pointing any fingers, and without calling out names, I would say that there were situations, both in the general election and prior to that, that the administration of an election in a county came very, very, very close … to a decision to have somebody relieved of their duties.” 

This led to a proposal from Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla. (R-Lines Were Long And I Helped By Sponsoring HB1355). Never mind the "coulda', woulda', shoulda' "no finger pointing suggestion" from Detzner, the Miami Republican thinks that removing a election official should become a promise, rather than a threat:

Targeting five counties that saw the worst problems during the 2012 elections, Florida legislators are considering giving Gov. Rick Scott and his administration broader power to remove elections supervisors or put them on probation.

Some critics say the move is an attempt to scapegoat supervisors for long lines caused mainly by legislators, who shortened early voting and lengthened the ballot with 11 proposed constitutional amendments.

The proposal came from Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami Republican who sponsored the 2011 election bill (HB 1355), signed into law by Scott, that critics say made voting more arduous last year. Diaz de la Portilla’s latest measure would require supervisors to issue reports to the Florida secretary of state three months before an election, attesting to their readiness.

Because a governor who currently has an approval rating of 33 percent, faces a difficult reelection, and trails his would be Democrat Charlie Crist opponent by 14 points, can never have too much power over the election process. Am I right?

Seriously.

Never mind that he and the Republicans used their "power" (and some they shouldn't have) over the last election by purging voter rolls and changing the election laws, and successfully disenfranchising many of those voters. They still lost.

Never mind that the Detzner Pointing Fingers Listening Tour on "what went wrong" with the election was really just a cosmetic effort.

They know very well what went wrong. They had a plan that worked as intended: HB1355, but it didn't work well enough. No matter how many times Rick Scott says "he did the right thing" we know he was warned of the problems that would ensue, had the chance to change his mind and didn't, signed the bill into law anyway, and when he had the chance to merely extend voting hours when those lines kept growing on election night, he said no.

So now when there's the honest chance to really fix what is clearly wrong, the Republican solution is to give him even more power over the election process?

What's wrong with this picture? Because he can't simply declare himself King Of The Swamp he's creating, this is the only alternative?

Sure looks like it. Because if they throw up all those roadblocks, but the voters insist on exercising their right to vote, and would probably prefer to elect one of the pythons currently slithering around in the Everglades rather than hand Lord Voldemort a second term, the next natural step would be the potential threat of firing an election official if they don't perform to Scott's liking? 

Because we've already heard that the election from hell "wasn't the fault of the Republicans, Detzner, or Scott." We've seen the "proposed changes" that would supposedly put many of the pre-HB1355 procedures back to what they were. But those are just proposals, and we've got a long way to go before 2014.

When Scott faces an even worse chance of being reelected than he had as an unknown candidate, except for his history running a company that broke new records for Medicare fraud, the incentive to really "fix" the system is very low.

Or very high, depending on your definition of the word "fix."

 

Florida Enjoying National Recognition As Ground Zero Of Election Disasters (Again)

Nah. Just Kidding.

Well, it's been quite a week for elections, scandals, and national attention highlighting Florida as ground zero for voting disasters, and it's only Tuesday!

It's hard to keep up, but here are just a few of the highlights so far:

Former beer lobbyist, and present Secretary of State Ken Detzner just came out with his "recommendations" (wink, wink) to "restore voter confidence." In his report, he listed several things that need to be addressed. Voters will quickly notice that many of those items are basically the very same "potholes" that the Florida legislature and Rick Scott dug in the road to the Florida ballot box last year. In other words, had they not made all those changes intended as voter suppression in the first place, we wouldn't have had all those problems on election day. That was the point, after all.

Sadly, nowhere in those recommendations does it say we should rid ourselves of said governor, SOS, nor the lawmakers in question, which at this point is the best option in the minds of Floridans. But they don't pay attention to what the voters want, so we're stuck with their wasted efforts to investigate themselves, while trying to point the finger elsewhere.

Of all those recommendations, Gov. Rick Scott put out a press release yesterday that apparently means he's ignoring all but three of them:

“This report details three key reforms our state needs to improve our election system and restore voter confidence. It recommends changing current law to shorten the length of the ballot, add more days for early voting – from eight to 14 days, including the option for supervisors of elections to open polls on the Sunday before Election Day, and increase the size of voting locations to better accommodate voters."

Of course, Scott claims he wants to be fair, and that improvements need to be made. Never mind that he was asked to make one of them on election night as people were still waiting in line AFTER the election was called. Thanks for nothing, Sherlock.

To add, he says "I have also asked Sec. Detzner to continue to work with those counties who need additional assistance or support to improve their systems, outside of statewide election law changes."

In regards to those changes, Detzner spoke at a panel in the State Senate today, and pointed the finger not at himself, the legislature, or the Governor, but the local supervisors themselves.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner told a Senate panel Tuesday that in “certain areas” the poor handling of the 2012 election could have led Gov. Rick Scott to consider removing local election officials from office.

“…it came very, very, very close, in my opinion,” said Detzner, who would not name names while speaking while addressing Senate Ethics and Elections subcommittee."

While he was busy pointing the finger at straw elections officials, another change was proposed. Giving Detzner even MORE power to suspend supervisors of elections:

State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said he wants to consider giving the secretary of state the power to suspend supervisors of elections. 

Detzner, who would not make that decision, said it would give the secretary of state “unprecedented authority.” He released proposed election reforms Monday that largely mirrored those already recommended by state election officials.

Matthew Fox, the panel's top attorney, said that adding that power would be tricky.

"As you know, the suspension power is exclusive within the province of the governor," he said. "We would have to be very careful not to step on the governor’s authority."

Yes, that's just the problem. Detzner should be granted even more power so he can cut to the chase and fire people without all this pesky investigation nonsense the next time voting problems come up. The main concern being not to step on the toes of King Voldemort, who is bound to benefit from said changes in 2014. He would likely lose the election if it were up to the silly voters, and well, he can't have that.

Literally can't have that. The voters don't like him and can't wait to vote him out regardless of his shallow attempts to win them over with empty slogans.

While Scott, Detzner, and the plotting Republicans in the Florida legislature go about their days in self-inflicted denial, their incompetence and attempt to rival the 2000 election debacle has not escaped notice elsewhere in the country.

Today the New York Times has a nice little graphic of voting wait times that occurred on election day. To find the wait time comparison to Florida's, you'll have to scroll, scroll, and scroll some more, all the way down to the bottom to see that Florida went way beyond the national average of 14 minutes. It also shows that those who had the longer waiting periods were, of course, black, Hispanic, Democrat and Independent voters. If you were a Republican, chances are you sailed right through!

You're welcome. Love, the GOP.

Charlie Pierce, over at Esquire.com sums our problems up well when he refers to us as "the World's Greatest Democracy" where "we run out elections on blueprints apparently drawn up by the Marx Brothers." He quotes Republican "Mensa" member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, who recently said that while it's "ridiculous to stand in line for a couple of hours just to vote," he also thinks it's ridiculous to "make a political issue out of it." (Were Grassley from Florida rather than Iowa, he would fit right in perfectly down here, wouldn't he?) 

Pierce ends his piece with this:

And it shouldn't be necessary to point out to anyone over the age of four that leaving things up to the states in this regard is a bad idea at the moment, and looks even worse in historical retrospect, especially with conservative lawyers right now gearing up to try and get the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act. Because, as we know, the country's far beyond all that nasty stuff that happened in the 1960s. That's history, which doesn't count any more.

If only that were true.

With Gov. Run Florida Like A Bidness, Secretary of State Chug-A-Lug, and the Kings of not so transparent anymore Gerrymandering in charge of the next election, let's just say we might have stood a better chance with the Marx Brothers.

But with this crew? Not so much.