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Election Reform Florida Style: We'll Only Disenfranchise Voters Who Are Blind, Elderly, Or Can't Read English!

If You Can't Read, Or See Your Ballot, That's Not Jack Latvala's Problem!

Also, voters of college age. But that's another bill Republicans are working on to block the vote in Florida.

Right now, awaiting a final vote in the Senate is HB 7013, which will make it harder for those who can't read English, are disabled, blind, or elderly to gain assistance when they attempt to cast their votes at the polls. In other words, if you thought the lines were long in 2012 and "election reform" was going to change that, than you are one of the pitifully optimistic. How quaint!

Today voting advocacy groups came out to once again cry foul, and rightfully so:

Under the change, sponsored by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, a person seeking to assist a voter at the polls must already know the person, and no one may assist more than 10 voters in an election.

"These restrictions on assistors will make it harder to vote, particularly for many of Florida's Latino and Hispanic residents," the groups said in advance of a conference call with Florida reporters.  

The organizations included Florida New Majority, the Advancement Project, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, Florida Immigrant Coalition and Florida Conference of the NAACP. They said the Senate bill would disenfranchise voters who can't read English. Advocates cited Section 208 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provides that a person who needs assistance as a result of blindness, disability, or the inability to read or write can receive assistance "from the person of his or her choice," provided it's not an agent or officer of the voter’s employer or union.

Latvala, echoing the cries over the non-existent problem of voter fraud for last year's changes that created some of the longest lines in the country, now says that assistance at the polls for these individuals are political tools ripe for abuse. 

That sounds more like projection from Republicans who naturally think of voter intimidation since they spend the majority of their time coming up with solutions to problems that don't exist, and figuring out ways to keep people who loathe them from voting for the other team.

They completely overlook facts, like not having enough people to assist those same voters last year, which added to the long lines. Naturally this year's solution: Cut back on the number of middle-assistance-men further and make those lines longer. Better yet, with any luck for Republicans, make sure those people just won't bother to show up at the polls at all.

Problem solved.

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

Chapter Two? Greer Still Plans To Expose RPOF's "Dirty Laundry" In An Upcoming Book

Rubio, Greer, and Cannon: Three's Company?

After threatening to expose the Republican Party of Florida's possible part in his undoing at trial, those anticipating a media circus out of fear or entertainment depending on who the observer was, were likely thrilled/disappointed when former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer instead pled guilty without saying a word. His promise of a "Shakespearean tragedy in which everyone dies in the end'' did not come to pass. Greer kissed his wife, was handcuffed, and after sentencing, led off to prison for 15 months. Followed by what was likely a collective sigh of relief from the RPOF, they happily went back to pretending Greer was just an anomaly, and returned to their favorite pastime, both hating and fearing Charlie Crist.

Finger pointing: It's what they do.

If you were disappointed when those ugly truths didn't surface, both old rumored ones and new alike, fear not! There's still hope that it will all come out in the end. Jim Greer was recently interviewed by Mike Deeson at WTSP, where he said not in so many words "Not so fast there, boys."

Those present and former Republicans, from Charlie Crist, to Dean Cannon, right on down to the way back machine with Marco Rubio and his magic RPOF credit card, may be worrying just a little bit longer. Jim Greer, it seems, plans to pass some of his time in the big house brushing up on his writing skills penning a book tentatively entitled "Dirty Laundry." (Never mind that Don Henley may call to ask for his song title back. I guess "borrowing" things from others is a hard habit to break for Republicans.)

But that's not all Greer had to say.

From the Deeson interview:

Greer maintains his innocence, saying then-Governor Charlie Crist was aware of the fact Greer was paying himself a commission for raising money for the party. In fact, Greer and three others close to Crist have given sworn testimony that the former governor not only knew, but directed Greer to do it. Crist maintains he did not, and had the case gone to trial the jury would have had to decide who was telling the truth.

Greer admits,"People will always say, 'If you are so innocent, why didn't you go to trial?' And I understand that."

There are some reports that Greer took a payoff to keep quiet. There's even an allegation that the Republican National Committee may have written him a check. Greer says about those reports, "I've read 'em. It's just not true."

But Greer says what is true is that friends have helped him with some attorney fees and restitution payment, but he was given no money or promised anything from anyone to plead guilty.

Greer also told Deeson that others in the party did even more than he did, naming examples by former House Speakers Ray Sansom and Dean Cannon, and now Senator Marco Rubio:

"They were allowed to quietly write checks back to the party," Greer says. He also says a friend told him he was being used by the Florida GOP as a scapegoat.

He says his friend told him, "They have cleansed their sins with your blood, Jim, and that is certainly not anything in relationship to Jesus, but it is certainly an appropriate statement."

He also spoke of the real reason for his guilty plea:

Greer claims he accepted the plea deal for a much more basic reason: fear. He was facing six charges. He says prosecutors told him that if he was convicted on just one, they would ask for nine years in prison.

When Greer made that guilty plea, the Florida GOP issued a statement, saying: 

“The truth is now known that Jim Greer broke the law,” stole from the party and donors, “and then said and did everything he could to cover up and distract attention from his crimes.”

Those same Republicans who were quick to point fingers and issue statements when Greer was first charged, only to clam up and keep their heads down once he started talking not only about their involvement in this, but also on their role in voter suppression and the real motives behind it, are now back to playing the innocent victims, once again perched on their self-professed moral high ground. 

Perhaps that "Dirty Laundry" Greer claims he'll air will bring them back down from the clouds just in time for the 2014 elections.

(Photos: Florida House, State Of Florida)

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.

Statewide Rallies Make The Case For True Election Reform

On the same day the Florida House voted on a bill to undo some of the changes made in election laws that caused the voting mess last year, which critics say won't do enough, Awake The State held "Free The Vote" rallies all across Florida to call attention to the need for real election reform.

The rallies were held to to "fight back against laws that left many Floridians waiting hours in line to exercise their right to vote," according to Awake The State:

"The point is to send a clear message to the Legislature that we want to see meaningful election reform during the legislative session," said Damien Filer, of Progress Florida, organizers of Awake the State. 

"The sad thing is that what we're really asking for here with most of these provisions is just to go back to the things were," he said. "We're not asking for anything new. We're just asking them to undo the damage they did in 2011."

Three key points, organizers said are 1) Expanding the number of early voting days back to 14 and allowing 12 hours per day while giving election supervisors more flexibility in opening new polling locations. 2) Reinstitute the 75-word cap on constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature, just as citizen-led initiatives are capped. 3) Voters should be able to update their voter registration address on Election Day if they move from one county to another, just as they could prior to 2011.

The bill  (HB 7013) approved yesterday with a vote of 118-1 doesn't go far enough, however:

It allows early-voting polling places at more kinds of sites, like fairgrounds, civic centers and convention centers. And it sets a 75-word limit on proposed initial ballot summaries to constitutional amendments.

The bill also restores the possibility of early voting on the Sunday before Election Day, when blacks often vote after church in a tradition known as "souls to the polls."]

[House Democrats said they wanted more in the measure, citing online voter registration, automatic voter registration upon renewal of driver's licenses and a path to restoring felons' right to vote.

But the bill as passed is "a good first step," said Janet Cruz of Tampa, the top Democrat on the House Ethics and Elections Subcommittee.

Rep. Dwayne Taylor, a Daytona Beach Democrat, did complain that the bill contains no money to allow local supervisors of elections to get better equipment and hire more staff for longer early voting at more places.

"We've got to allocate those dollars because they're going to need them," he said.

A companion bill (SB 600) is now in the Senate and covers many of the same provisions as the House bill.

At the Free The Vote rally at the Capitol, Senators spoke out against the election problems as well as Rick Scott's handling of them:

Senate Ethics and Elections committee member Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, voiced his frustrations at the embarrassment of the 2012 elections at the Awake the State rally.

“What we are doing is not working and it didn’t work in 2012 when we had six, seven hour lines for people to be able to vote in the state of Florida,” Clemens said. “That is nothing less than criminal and frankly it disgusts me to see people walking around saying it wasn’t that much of a problem as we’ve heard from certain members of the House and certain members of the Senate.”

Rallies were also held in Palm Beach County, Fort Myers, Vero Beach, Jacksonville, Tampa, and other locations.

Related articles

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

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

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

Can Rick Scott Proposed Voting Changes Be Trusted?

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. 

Election 2012: Long Lines In Florida Cost At Least 201,000 Votes

Mission Accomplished 

We knew it was bad, but, well, the votes are not in.

The Orlando Sentinel and a professor at Ohio State University, Theodore Allen, analyzed the data and have estimated that at least 201,000 people in Florida gave up on voting due to the long lines during the November election. At least:

His preliminary conclusion was based on the Sentinel's analysis of voter patterns and precinct-closing times in Florida's 25 largest counties, home to 86 percent of the state's 11.9 million registered voters.

"My gut is telling me that the real number [of voters] deterred is likely higher," Allen said. "You make people wait longer, they are less likely to vote."...]

[...In Florida, he concluded, the lost voters appeared to favor President Barack Obama. Of the 201,000 "missing" votes, 108,000 likely would have voted for Obama and 93,000 for Republican Mitt Romney, he said.

This suggests that Obama's margin over Romney in Florida could have been roughly 15,000 votes higher than it was. Obama carried the state by 74,309 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast.

Republicans are well aware of what "could have been," and they're already working on how to rig the next election.

 

 

Related articles

Can Rick Scott Proposed Voting Changes Be Trusted?

GOP Consultant Admits Long Lines At Polls "Help Our Side"

Study: Rick Scott's Long Voting Lines Cost Obama A Net 11,000 Votes In Central Florida

Florida Elections Among Targets Of FAST Voting Act Introduced In The Senate

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) 

After the 2012 election, Florida's Republican-created fiasco gained national attention and had officials and voters alike saying "I told you so." In spite of their efforts, President Obama won reelection without Florida. Still, many voters were disenfranchised, while others endured long lines, wait times, and countless other roadblocks. After the votes were finally counted, Rick Scott laughably claimed none of this was his doing, but sought to place blame on others, and "vowed" to make changes to election procedures. This move to fix things in time for his own hopes for reelection is, of course, not lost on anyone. Still, his proposals are vague and have more than a few critics.

Just days after the election, Democrats in the U. S. Senate unveiled plans for a bill to address many of the voting problems not only in Florida, but nationwide.

Yesterday, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reintroduced that legislation, The Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act, to create a competitive grant program to encourage states to aggressively pursue election reform. The states that demonstrate the most comprehensive and promising reform plans will earn a greater portion of the grant funding.

“The sight of countless Americans standing in line for hours to vote this past Election Day should remind us that our election system needs to be fixed,” Senator [Sheldon] Whitehouse said.  “The FAST Voting Act is an important first step, providing incentives for states to take common sense steps to make voting easier for everyone.”
 
“We cannot permit voter suppression and intimidation, which persist in long lines, ballot shortages, machine malfunctions, bully billboards, and intrusive ID requirements,” Senator Blumenthal said. “Voting is a fundamental aspect of the electoral process that should be protected at all costs, and the FAST voting Act seeks to do exactly that by providing states with resources to reform their election processes.”
 
The bill was originally introduced in November 2012, just over a week after an Election Day that saw extraordinarily long lines and a myriad of voting issues in more than a dozen states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia, South Carolina, Montana, Tennessee, Hawaii, Arizona, Rhode Island and more.

The FAST bill authorizes a federal program that would award grants based on how well applicant states are able to improve access to the polls in at least nine specified ways, including:

• Providing flexible registration opportunities, including same-day registration;
• Providing early voting, at a minimum of 9 of the 10 calendar days preceding an election;
• Providing absentee voting, including no-excuse absentee voting;
• Providing assistance to voters who do not speak English as a primary language;
• Providing assistance to voters with disabilities, including visual impairment;
• Providing effective access to voting for members of the armed services;
• Providing formal training of election officials, including State and county administrators and volunteers;
• Auditing and reducing waiting times at polling stations; and
• Creating contingency plans for voting in the event of a natural or other disaster.

The program also requires an assessment of steps the state has taken to eliminate statutory, regulatory, procedural and other barriers to expedited voting and accessible voter registration.

The changes proposed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott are vague, and would leave many of those decisions to local officials:

• More Early Voting Days – Increase the number of days available for early voting. We should allow Supervisors of Elections the flexibility to offer anywhere between eight and 14 days of early voting. Hours of operation should range between six and 12 hours a day. This should include the Sunday before Election Day, allowing Supervisors the option to accommodate the needs of their community as they requested in committee meetings this week. This would also allow the greatest access to early voting ever in Florida history – at up to 168 hours.
• More Early Voting Locations – Work with Supervisors to allow more and larger early voting locations to help reduce wait times, long lines, and to better convenience voters.
•  Shorter Ballot – Reduce the length of the ballot, including the description of proposed constitutional amendments. “I appreciate the secretary’s work in support of our goal to give all Floridians confidence in the fairness and accessibility of our election system. We must continually push to make improvements, and I look forward to working with the Legislature on a bi-partisan bill to implement these reforms this session. I also appreciate the Legislature and the Supervisors of Elections for their feedback in committee meetings this week. As the Legislature continues its work, I look forward to working together to craft legislation that will ensure successful elections by making these important statewide reforms.”

(Photo of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse by Martha Jackovics)

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