Beach Peanuts

Rick Scott: Online Voter Registration Is Bad, But Online UI Access Is A Must

People may have been surprised to hear last week that Rick Scott is totally against an online voter registration system in Florida. Not because it's news that he's trying to restrict voting mind you, he's got a long history of that.

No, what's somewhat surprising is his reasoning for why online voter registration would be bad:

The "online" part.

A bill unanimously passed a Senate committee Thursday that would enact online voter registration in Florida, but Scott’s administration issued a report outlining a number of criticisms in response. In the report, the Division of Elections says the bill would present risks and challenges to the voter registration system, an argument that even Republican election administrators in the state say is erroneous.

“Malicious cyber-attacks and non-malicious malfunctions could potentially wreak havoc on an online voter registration system,” the report said. “Given the increasing prevalence of identity theft an online voter registration system could potentially increase the chances of votes being cast by someone other than the people actually registered to vote.”

Ok, so we've been warned about the evils of non-existent voter fraud, governor, but DO go on: 

The report also noted that not all citizens have access to a personal computer or internet connection — even though registering to vote on paper would still be permitted — and warned that “if the websites for online voter registration are not sufficiently user friendly, frustrated applicants may give up on registering to vote altogether.”

The conscientious governor is concerned that not having internet access could prevent one from voting, even though registering on paper would still be permitted. That's an interesting excuse considering one of the things you can't get in Florida without internet access (thanks to Rick Scott, by the way) is unemployment benefits. Only under strict circumstances can you get them without doing so online through his "new and improved" UI website which to this day is virtually unworkable.

In fact, a trip to the CONNECT FAQ page here is a handy guide to the pitfalls of daring to navigate the website in the first place.

Clicking on this page further warns you that only certain devices can be used for access. So online access is even restricted. Never mind that this information directly contradicts the DEO Claimant Guide which says CONNECT provides online access to all claim related information that you can access anywhere, at any time. 

Scott's claim "if the websites for online voter registration are not sufficiently user friendly, frustrated applicants may give up on registering to vote altogether” could possibly ring true in some circumstances. Circumstances like this sidebar, also found on the CONNECT website? 

The number of individuals claiming RA benefits has declined from 556,941 when Governor Rick Scott took office (week ending 1/8/2011), down to approximately 81,795 (week ending 03/28/2015).

What with all the hoops required to get unemployment in the first place since Rick Scott "improved" the state UI website, is it any wonder claims are down? Of course not. He's an expert in finding ways to make people so frustrated they give up. Unfortunately for him, that backfired when he tried to restrict access to the polls before and people were even more determined to stay in line until they voted.

But everything he's tried so far to keep people from voting has failed, so his latest attempt at selective concerns of cyber-security, identity theft, and problems with access are laughable. Even those in his own party aren't buying it. 

And that's saying something.

@BeachPeanuts

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Florida Gives Itself A "B+" For Blocking The Unemployed From Their Benefits

Just last week a study was released that ranked Florida one of the four "stingiest states in paying unemployment benefits for those who haven’t had a job for 26 weeks or less."  Florida has cut the amount of time to qualify for benefits, and cut the benefit period to 14 weeks.  Of course, this study only included those who haven't had a job for that 26 week period. It didn't include the long-term unemployed, so the findings were a high number at best. Many don't get benefits at all.

Add to that the state's newly revamped CONNECT website that cost taxpayers a small fortune but still doesn't work properly and you've got a lot of people going broke in a hurry, thus widening the already large income gap in the state.

So it should come as no surprise that the governor who struck the words "climate change" from virtually every state agency's lexicon has now put his "It's Working" stamp of approval on the very same largely inoperable CONNECT unemployment website. The director of the state's Department of Economic Opportunity says the website is working just fine!

[Tom] Clendenning addressed a critical audit’s findings during Monday’s joint legislative auditing committee. Asked to grade the new CONNECT website, Clendenning gave it a B+.

Once again, failure is rewarded by the state of Florida, and one individual who doesn't have to worry about job security is Jesse Panuccio, the executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity who is responsible for the entire CONNECT website debacle. Last year the legislature unanimously confirmed him for the six-figure job, even as the problems persisted.

Despite the passing grade from Clendenning, the website is still failing today:

But claimants like Eddie Batista, an unemployed sales representative in West Palm Beach, said CONNECT still gets a failing grade with him.

“I’m disgusted,” Batista said after the meeting when told about Clendenning’s comments. “It still doesn’t work. I don’t know what we’re going to do when the next bill comes in. We’re broke. A B+? No way, it’s an F.”

Florida is also famous for skewing test results, and this is no exception:

“So every item is not fixed and the potential for failure still exists?” Gibson asked Clendenning.

“I suppose there’s always an opportunity for failure,” he said. “While the overwhelming majority of the issues have been fixed, there’s still work being done.”  

Try telling your employer (if you have a job) "there's always an opportunity for failure" the next time you screw up at work and see how quickly you get the opportunity to test drive that CONNECT website for yourself.

In an environment already hostile to the unemployed where nearly every possible cut has already been made, a website that blocks benefits even after a claimant has cleared every other hurdle Rick Scott and the GOP have set up, it's no surprise they would now say CONNECT is passing with flying colors.

In Scott World, the fact that the website isn't working means "It's Working."

It may be unspoken, but the word "failure" is no more of an option than the term "climate change" in Rick Scott's Administration.

@BeachPeanuts

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Obamacare Is Doing Great, But Florida's GOP Alternative Is A $2.4 Million-30 Customer Train Wreck

Despite the GOP's constant parroting that Obamacare would be, or is, a "train wreck," the facts prove time and again that it's doing just fine. In Florida, as of June, 866,485 enrolled in health care plans under the Affordable Care Act, and that number is predicted to reach 1.1 million next year. 

By GOP standards, that's a train wreck? 

Meanwhile, what has a whopping total of 30 signups, has made virtually no deals with any major insurance companies, and has cost Florida taxpayers $2.4 million so far? Why, that would be the promised success of the GOP's so-called "alternative" to Obamacare:

The Florida alternative to Obamacare has, so far, been a bust.

Nearly six months after going online, and six years after the state's GOP leaders conceived it as a "free-market" response to calls for federal health reform, Florida Health Choices has found only about 30 customers, according to its Chief Executive Officer Rose Naff.

The online buying exchange, which has received $2.4 million in taxpayer funding since 2008, has also not secured deals with any major health insurers. For now, it mostly offers memberships to discount dental and vision programs.

Florida Health Choices received $1.5 million in startup funds from the Legislature in 2008, after getting the blessing of then-state House Speaker Marco Rubio. State lawmakers allocated another $900,000 to the project last year.

Just add that $2.4 million to the taxpayer's tab that Rick Scott and the GOP have already thrown away that's funding Medicaid in other states while Floridians die without it.

This "free-market success story" of the GOP's will need 67,000 customers in the first year to cover costs, according to the CEO of Florida Health Choices, but as they're at the halfway point for that deadline, they have 30.

Not 30,000: Thirty.

Ladies and gentlemen of Florida, I believe we've located the actual train wreck.

Funny, isn't it? For all their predictions of Democratic train wrecks, when we actualy find one, Republicans and Rick Scott always seems to be the engineers?

@BeachPeanuts

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Scott's DEO Reported 19,000 Innocent Floridians To Collection Agencies, Potentially Costing Taxpayers $1.9 Billion

Former DEO Employee and Whistleblower Dianne Parcell

"There's a climate in the Scott administration where employees are not encouraged to do the right thing and are penalized for doing so"

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the same agency which, under Rick Scott, spent millions on a new website that didn't work and blocked the benefits of the unemployed for months, has cost Floridians a lot more than the public was previously aware of.

Much more.

It turns out that the DEO improperly reported Floridians to collection agencies for alleged unemployment overpayments in 97 cases, and a DEO employee who reported this to her supervisors and the governor's office was subsequently placed on administrative leave and then fired. 

Dianne Parcell, the employee and whistleblower won a $250,000 judgment against the state. Because Scott's DEO unfairly reported at least 19,000 innocent, unemployed Floridians to the collection agencies, the cost to Florida taxpayers is potentially $1.9 billion in liabilities.

Lack Of Jobs, Health Insurance, Makes Florida Under Scott The Most Stressed Out State In The Country

Stressed Out In Florida: "We're Number 1!" (Graphic: Movoto)

"It's Working?"

That's one of Rick Scott's favorite campaign phrases, but is Florida indeed "working" as Scott claims?

Not so much, according to this:

Beaches, sunshine and citrus fruit apparently don't bring peace of mind to the residents of this state

What stresses you out? A long commute? Check. Being unemployed? Check. Working long hours? Check. Living in Florida? Double check.

Florida wins the unhappy distinction of being the most stressed-out state in the country, according to a study by a real estate blog. Movoto combined factors including the percentage of people without health insurance, housing expenses and hours worked per week in order to measure stress across the country.

Florida’s combination of high unemployment (11.3%) and high rate of people without health insurance (25.8%) made it the most stressed-out state in the country, according to the site’s methodology.

Florida may be "working" for Rick Scott's big donors and the corporate types he vowed to "run the state like a business" for, but it's not working for the rest of us who have to live here.

While Movato cites unemployment, long work hours, lack of health insurance, and long commutes (yes, who needs high-speed rail, along with the jobs and profits it would have brought to the state's economy, had Scott not rejected it?), they didn't touch on other issues that contribute, like gutting education, ignoring environmental concerns, and many more, and then making it harder for those caving under all that stress to vote him out of office.

So when you hear Scott's new slogan "Let's Keep Working," ask yourself "Working for what? Working for who, exactly?"

Stress itself is unhealthy, but if Florida has to suffer another four years under Rick Scott, stress will be the least of our problems. 

@BeachPeanuts

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Florida Dis-CONNECT: Failure's Not Only An Option, It's A Plus

The man at the helm of Florida's botched CONNECT website is being rewarded for blocking benefits from the unemployed for months:

On Monday, Jesse Panuccio, the executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, won his second round of confirmation to his $141,000 job with an 11-0 vote by the Senate’s Commerce and Tourism Committee.

Four Democrats and seven Republicans approved  Panuccio’s confirmation -- which some hoped would provide him a chance to instruct others on complicated technical issues.

Unanimous. 11-0. Even Democrats are saying "job well done." Because why not? It's Florida, where we don't do "accountability."

 

It's understandable that Republicans would say "He's our man" to the guy who couldn't CONNECT the unemployed with their benefits for months because of his failed, revamped website which now requires online application. It makes perfect sense for the party that loathes the unemployed as much as the poor and uninsured to say "I'm not just going to support you, I'm going to do everything I can in the process to make sure you get to the end" to the man whose website failed miserably. Especially when it cost taxpayers more to fix the mess, and he'll be paid $141,000 a year for his trouble.

 

But Democrats? What's their excuse?

 

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DisCONNECT By Design?

Florida's Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for an investigation into Rick Scott's Florida Department of Economic Opportunity's handling of their new unemployment website that failed as soon as it launched back in October, delayed benefits for months, and is still facing problems. Add to the $63 million that Scott and the DEO threw at a company with a history of similar failures elsewhere, another $300,000 along with 250 new staff positions at $165,000 a week each, and the bill to taxpayers for little more than failure is really adding up.

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Hart, Scott, And DisCONNECT: A Wink, And A Nod To Disaster?

It seems that for the 100,000 Floridans who lost their jobs (through no fault of their own), and who now cannot gain access to the unemployment benefits they're eligible for, they and the state's costly but botched website is just a joke to the officials charged with running it.

Literally.

Republicans Block Unemployment Extension, Again

Republicans managed to filibuster a three-month extension of unemployment for the long-term unemployed, and yes, as usual, Marco Rubio voted "nay."  Bill Nelson voted in favor of the extension. Only four Republicans voted with the Democrats:

Sen. Dean Heller (NV), Kelly Ayotte (NH), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) changed his vote at the last minute to preserve the option of bringing up the bill in the future. The final vote was 58-40.

 

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What Economic Opportunity? It's Not Working

It took intervnetion from Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and a visit from the feds to finally get to working on a potential fix for Rick Scott's disastrous unemployment website. And what does his Department of Economic Opportunity have to offer in the way of solutions? 

Finger pointing.