While Florida's Secretary of State Ken Detzner and Governor Rick Scott continue to suggest that those long lines on election day were signs of a good turnout and a "really good election," it's obvious to most everyone else that they were part of a package created by them along with Republicans in the legislature to suppress the vote. Some Republicans have even said as much, like former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, who said there were meetings conducted to suppress the black vote, and that the GOP used "phantom" voter fraud as a marketing tool to change election laws to make sure the high Democratic voter turnout in 2008 for President Obama wouldn't happen again.
Now a Republican political consultant who was paid to do "data consulting" for Mitt Romney publicly stated that tactics to produce long lines at the polls as we saw in Florida, and voter ID laws are part of what his "side" does to suppress the vote in their favor.
The consultant, Scott Tranter, who owns Vlytics, the firm that received more than $3,000 from Romney for his work spoke at the Pew Center Monday, where he said this:
"A lot of us are campaign officials -- or campaign professionals -- and we want to do everything we can to help our side. Sometimes we think that's voter ID, sometimes we think that's longer lines -- whatever it may be," Tranter said with a laugh.
In reaction to Tranter's remarks, Michael McDonald, of the George Mason University Election Project was taken aback and said he couldn't quite believe he said what he did. McDonald also spoke of another in the audience, who reacted by saying "Well, at least he's honest." (You can see the video here.)
Immediately after the election, when Governor Scott said that he "did the right thing" by refusing to extend voting days and hours because of the long lines, apparently he was "being honest" as well.
To Scott and the Republican Party, long lines and voter suppression are absolutely the right thing to do if they want to win.
Tranter is only the latest to speak out in public to admit it.
