A federal judge on Wednesday extended voter registration until Oct. 18 in the battleground state of Florida, due to the disruption and damage from Hurricane Matthew.
During a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker agreed to extend the deadline for six more days. He had already extended the Oct. 11 deadline one day, after the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit last weekend, following the hurricane's brush with Florida's east coast.
Walker said in an order issued shortly afterward that he acted swiftly because "no right is more precious than having a voice in our democracy."
"Hopefully it is not lost on anyone that the right to have a voice is why this great country exists in the first place," wrote Walker, who set the deadline at 5 p.m. on Oct. 18....
...Democrats late last week asked Republican Gov. Rick Scott to extend the deadline, but Scott turned down the request and said people have had enough time to register. Scott brushed aside questions on whether his decision was related to his staunch support of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
In court, however, attorneys for both Scott and the state's chief top elections official offered no defense of the existing deadline and did not object to an extension. Most of the hour-long hearing before Walker was spent discussing how long to extend voter registration.
Walker said he did not believe that Scott had authority to use his emergency powers to waive the deadline. But he also pointed out that Florida law already allows the governor to suspend or delay an election if there is an emergency.
"There is a gap in Florida law that renders (the deadline) constitutionally untenable," Walker said.
Yesterday a judge disagreed with Scott and ordered a one day extension and set a hearing on perhaps extending it further:
A federal judge in Florida late Monday ordered the state to extend the deadline for registering to vote by one day and set a hearing on whether to extend it even further.
Under Florida law, voters had until Tuesday, Oct. 11, to register to vote. But Judge Mark Walker said in view of the disruption caused by Hurricane Matthew, the state should have extended it to Wednesday.
The order came in response to a lawsuit filed Sunday by Florida Democrats. They said when Gov. Rick Scott ordered evacuations as the hurricane headed for the state, he forced voters "to choose between their safety and the safety of their families on one hand, and their fundamental right to vote on the other."
The state Democrats had asked the judge to extend the registration deadline by a week, until October 18. He set a hearing for 10 a.m. Wednesday on that request.
Walker said Florida law gives the governor authority to suspend or move an election date due to an unforeseen emergency. Given that, the judge said, "it is wholly irrational in this instance for Florida to refuse to extend the voter registration deadline.
"It has been suggested that the issue of extending the voter registration deadline is about politics. Poppycock," Walker wrote.
"This case is about the right of aspiring eligible voters to register and to have their votes counted. Nothing could be more fundamental to our democracy."
While Rick Scott has posted an extensive list of updates on hurricane recovery, cleanup, and government resources, his list makes no mention of the voter registration deadline extension.
Matthew And Scott, A Perfect Storm For More Voter Suppression
You've probably heard the phrase "never let a good crisis go to waste." Well, so has Florida's Governor Rick Scott, who has employed it liberally since he became governor.
So when Hurricane Matthew came along this week during the final days for voter registration in Florida, threatening to potentially cut off a few of those days before the deadline, he seized the opportunity for political advantage.
Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign asked him to extend the deadline in light of the storm, and Scott immediately responded "no" during his statewide tour of pre-hurricane photo-ops.
So as he was telling Florida residents the dangerous storm "would kill them," Scott didn't feel the storm was severe enough to give those who were trying to save their own lives and the lives of others additional time to prepare to participate in democracy after the storm passes. Even as Florida was undergoing the largest mass evacuation in the state's history, (1.5 million living on the east coast) Scott insisted that Floridians had already had enough time to register to vote:
“I’m not going to extend it,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters in Tallahassee. “Everybody has had a lot of time to register. On top of that, we have lots of opportunities to vote: early voting, absentee voting, Election Day. So I don’t intend to make any changes.”
Even the Republican governors of the other states impacted by Hurricane Matthew, Georgia and South Carolina, saw the importance of extending the voter registration deadlines there and granted them.
But Rick Scott said "no."
By law, Floridians have until October 11 to register. By not extending the deadline to accommodate those who have every right to believe they can register right up until that deadline if they choose, but may now miss that deadline due to unforeseen events like having to flee their communities during a deadly hurricane and/or facing days of putting their lives back together, Scott is essentially shortening their time to register to vote.
Many will recall another extension Scott refused to make in 2012. That year, Scott also refused to extend early voting, and as a result, some waited six hours in line to vote. Many were still in line after the polls closed. This was after Scott had tried other voter suppression tactics like purging voter rolls of eligible voters, making it harder for students to register on college campuses, and refusing to restore voter rights for felons, with help from his SOS who also doesn't see the need for online voter registration.
In essence, Rick Scott wants government to stay out of your business, unless you want to participate in democracy.
So after ordering the shutdown of government offices in preparation for Hurricane Matthew, (some being elections offices where one could register to vote, many closed for the remainder of the week and potentially into next week), urging nearly the entire east coast of Florida to evacuate, and touring the state urging people to prepare for a dangerous hurricane that had already taken hundreds of lives before it reached Florida, apparently giving those fleeing their homes a little extra time to register to vote was a bridge too far for Scott. In other words, sure, the hurricane may kill you, but if you thought you had plenty of time left to register to vote, well, if you snooze, you lose!
Now, extending the deadline may not seem like a big deal to some, but Florida is a swing state that Donald Trump would like to win, and Rick Scott would love to deliver it to him. In fact, in addition to being the governor who has the power to extend voting registration deadlines, not to mention extending early voting, Scott is also the chair of a Trump Super PAC called Rebuilding America Now. But that conflict of interest just the beginning.
Currently, Hillary Clinton is beating Trump in the polls. Then there are several other facts and figures to consider, and no doubt Scott considered them as well when he made his decision against extending the deadline.
Elections supervisors typically see a surge in voter interest immediately before the registration closes. About 50,000 people registered during the final five days in 2012, according to University of Florida professor Daniel A. Smith, who studies Florida voting trends.
“Right at the end, people feel the urgency to do something,” said Gihan Perera, head of Florida New Majority, which called off its sign-up events at schools, churches and football games in South Florida and the Jacksonville area.
Given that last minute registration history, and the fact that this year, the very thought of turning the White House over to the likes of Donald Trump may well drive fear-stricken voters to the polls in record numbers, there's probably more than a good chance that people will "feel the urgency to do something." This week is also one of the busiest weeks for voter registration drive schedules according to those involved. On Wednesday many voter registration drives had to be cancelled in the wake of the storm. Even those registering by mail could lose out. Voter applications must be postmarked by next Tuesday to be accepted. That may be a huge problem considering mail from communities on nearly the entire east coast could either come to a halt, or be lost altogether.
“For any political party to ask this in the middle of a storm is political,” said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott, and “our No. 1 focus is protecting life. There’ll be another day for politics.”
Late Thursday, about 90 minutes after the governor’s final press briefing, Scott’s office revealed he’d taken calls earlier in the day about Matthew with two top Trump supporters: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The late schedule revision meant the governor avoided questions from reporters about the conversations.
What are the chances that the conversation involved seizing the opportunity to use the hurricane to Trump's advantage? We'll never know since Scott made sure no one in the press could ask him.
The Florida Democratic Party has submitted about 488,000 voter-registration forms it has collected for this election, while Republicans have submitted roughly 60,000, according to state reports.
And if all that isn't enough, there's the possibility of another nightmare scenario in the mind of a law professor who happens to be an election law expert, and to those still having flashbacks to the 2000 election, suffice it to say the idea of this sequence of events could trigger many more.
Today, as we get word that so far four Floridans have been killed, and as hurricane Matthew is still creating devastation up the coast, Democratic members of Florida’s Congressional delegation are again asking Scott to extend the deadline by three days. Just three days. To register to vote. In the wake of deadly hurricane possibly displacing over a million voters.
Too much to ask?
All of these things combined could create a "perfect storm" if you will, in the mind of Florida's "run government like a business" dictator wannabe who prefers profits over people, if Rick Scott fancies turning the country over to another one who's even worse than he is.
And he does.
Did I mention Scott happens to be the chair of a Trump Super PAC?
90 for 90 is a website and a grassroots movement. It's a voter education and advocacy project, started in Virginia, in anticipation of Virginia's 2015 elections for state legislative offices. It honors and acknowledges the work of a man who, at 30 years of age, in 1955, began helping and educating voters, as well as potential voters, in Richmond, Virginia. Uh huh... Yeah... Right... So what?
The 30 year old gentleman was Black; he and his partners helped Black folks in Richmond, (as well as Roanoke, Lynchburg, Norfolk, and Newport News), navigate the poll taxes and literacy tests of the day; obstacles and devices common to the time/region, which were employed to result in the lowest possible Black voter participation. (Watch the video above of Harvard students taking the 1964 Louisiana literacy test.)
Richmond, Va. was, is, and will always be, the "Capitol of the Confederacy." What's that you say?... Helping Black people vote?... 10 years before the 1965 Voting Rights Act?... In the very segregated-- JIM CROW-- "Capitol of the Confederacy"??... That sounds kind of... possibly... dangerous?
Well, yes; it was both; kind of, and very possibly dangerous.
Still, the 30 year old Black gentleman and his principle cohorts, (his wife; Mr. Johnny Brooks, and Dr. William Thornton-- A.K.A-- "The Crusade For Voters") did it anyway. For 10 - 12 years they worked diligently, registering voters throughout Virginia, with great success; and at the age of 42, this young Black man was elected to the Virginia General Assembly, becoming the first Black person elected to serve in the Virginia General Assembly since the post Civil War "Reconstruction" Era.
Well, let's see; if he was 30 years old in 1955, and 42 years old in 1967, that would make him... 90 years old?? Going on 91???
HE'S 90 YEARS OLD YA'LL!!!! Dr. Fergie Reid, Sr., a trailblazing, iconic, indefatigable, OLD DUDE; is still working the drill, advocating for greater voter participation in the face of "New Age" obstacles to voting; he is still doing "The Work."
To celebrate his 90th birthday, some of his friends in Richmond, "threw him" a voter education and registration project - and a birthday party. They set a goal for Virginia activists to register 90 new voters per precinct by Nov. 2016, approximating 250,000 newly registered voters in Virginia for the 2016 Presidential cycle. To date, ~ 180,000 new voters have been registered. 90for90.org is well on the way to exceeding its Virginia target. Not bad; not bad at all.
But wait a minute... If Virginia can do it... EVERY STATE CAN DO IT!! OH, SNAP!!!!
90for90.org is a movement of candidates, activists, organizations, unions, etc.; who believe that, "VOTING IS GOOD", and that, "PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE BLOCKED FROM VOTING." They also believe that Dr. Reid's political achievements, and his body of "voting advocacy" work, should be honored, recognized, shared, and appreciated; and that their support for this project expresses their recognition and appreciation.
Each of the project's supporters agrees to engage voters, and potential voters, all year long - every year; not just during the several weeks prior to the voter registration deadline; because, when more people vote, the famous phrase, "...of, by, and for the people," has greater weight, right? Yes it does!! It's very weighty!!
"So what can I do? I can't register 90 people to vote. No way, I'm not even a really political person. What do you want me to do? 90 voters? That's 'pie in the sky.'"
Exactly! Don't register 90 people! Instead, start inside your own circle; nucleus; home; house; cohort group. "Start With One."
If 90 of you, who are now reading this sentence, register just one new voter-- possibly the high school/college student who occasionally visits your home, with whom you share your food, and your last name-- Well Dang!! There's 90 new voters right there! You get it. Start where you are. Talk to the folk who are right next to you. If you are a high school junior/senior-- college student... YOU HAVE THE POWER!!!
You and your friends and homies are THE ANSWER. Register to Vote Get your group talking about VOTING! If your age group comes out to vote, things will get better, sooner. Educate yourself; vote your conscience; you have choices:
• Donnie "Trump Card" Drumpf?
• "Rafael" Cruz?
• "Bootsie" Rubio?
• Possibly you "Yearn to Bern," or you may be, "Ready for Hillary?"
It's your decision; you make it. Cast your vote. You and your people are, "THE PEOPLE." All of us, together, are "THE PEOPLE."
"...Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth." Wow! So wise! So true! But only when "THE PEOPLE" cast their vote.
(Reposted from Down With Tyranny, and with thanks also to Dr. F. Reid, Jr.)
Are you registered to vote? To check your status, get more information, or register to vote in Florida, go to your local Supervisor of Elections website, or click here.
"If it’s to re-authorize it to continue to provide regulations on top of states as though we are living in 1960 — because those were basically when many of those rules were put in place — I don’t believe that we should do that," Bush responded. "There’s been dramatic improvement in access to voting — exponentially better improvement. And I don’t think there’s a role for the federal government to play in most places — there could be some — but in most places where they did have a constructive role in the 60s. So I don’t support reauthorizing it as is."
So I guess that puts him in the John Roberts "racism is over" camp.
As bad as Jeb! is at campaigning, he's not stupid, and his answer here is about as disingenuous as they come. Because much of the "dramatic improvement in access to voting" made since the 60's was undone after the Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that struck down portions of the VRA when red states in the South made a mad dash to enact new voting laws, including Florida where Gov. Rick Scott, thrilled by the ruling, pushed ahead with another voter purge which luckily fell apart. And this was after cracking down on voter registration drives and cutting voting hours that led to the longest lines at the polls in the country during the 2012 election.
Jeb's comments also come on the heels of a move in Alabama to close driver's license offices in communities with a majority of the state's black population after enacting tougher voter ID laws. But sure, Jeb! says we aren't living in the 60's.
Probably the most reprehensible facet of Jeb's statement is the hypocrisy, considering his own actions in "government intervention" in elections. After all, it was Jeb! who purged thousands of black voters in Florida (possibly violating the VRA in the process.) Then there's the 2000 election. Jeb! seemed just fine with government intervention then when his brother George was heading for a loss. In fact, had it not been for Jeb!, we wouldn't have had the disastrous eight years that set the country back in a hole we're still trying to dig our way out of.
Oddly enough, one of the few things his brother George did right was to sign a reauthorization of the VRA in 2006 when it passed in Congress. But that was back when Republicans could still function somewhat in Congress.
Fast forward to the present, where there is currently a complete meltdown occurring in the GOP-led House as I write. "Washington is broken" says Jeb! who also tells us he is just the guy to fix it. But first, to get there he has to get through the election.
How fitting that, when asked what he would do to "fix" the Voting Rights Act, Jeb's answer is virtually the same as it was back in 1994:
Florida's Secretary Of State, and former beer lobbyist who currently oversees the state's elections, wants to double his budget request for next year by asking for $4 million in a presidential election year.
Detzner's budget proposal refers to "critically needed funds" to counties for increased voter education and other education administration activities for the 2016 primary and general elections." The money would be used for printing and mailing sample ballots, voter ID cards and ads explaining voting procedures, voting rights or voting technology, poll worker training; voter guides; online or web-based absentee ballot requestsand other issues. Oh, yes: In what every election supervisor will enjoy hearing, the extra money is also for "recount processes."
Given the history of voting shenanigans procedures since Rick Scott appointed Ken Detzner SOS (did I mention his prior experience for overseeing state elections was being a beer lobbyist?), I can't be the first person to cringe at this news.
Since Detzner signed on for the job, election procedures in Florida have been wrought with disaster. (See a long but partial list of examples in my archives here.) Between Scott and Detzner, the state has conducted voter purges that bumped legal voters off the rolls including an elderly veteran, restricted absentee ballots, and restricted voting on college campuses, just to name a few. They also oversaw the biggest embarrassment in the nation when people were still waiting in line to vote hours after the polls closed in the 2012 election, because Scott and Detzner thought less polling places in "certain" areas were a necessity to keeping the election running smoothly. I mean, the man even cited his own agency's incompetence at oversight to oppose online vote registration, a simple and easy way to register voters that numerous other states use that work just fine.
Let's just say it isn't only the voters who need educating. But doubling the budget to $4 million for a new plan to "educate" voters, reissue voter ID cards, provide for "voting technology," when the life of most voting machines are just about up, and, oh by the way, part of that $4 million will go into "recount processes" when they inevitably screw things up and need to bring in the lawyers during a presidential election. Can you say "Election 2000" and "Jeb Bush," who handed the election to his brother that year, and who just happens to be running for president himself next year?"
Is This Man's Incompetence The Problem Or The Goal?
Florida's voting procedures have a long history as being a joke, but the utter incompetence and suppression tactics coming from the current Secretary of State is no laughing matter.
The man in charge of running elections in Florida simply doesn't appear to be interested in his job.
The latest example of this is the proposed implementation of online voter registration that other states have easily transitioned to, which not only saves money, but guards against the risk of voter fraud, which we're told by the GOP, absent of facts, is rampant and must be stopped at all costs.
Lawmakers are currently trying to implement online registration by 2017, a deadline they already pushed back from 2016. The plan also has unanimous support from the state's supervisors of elections.
Yet SOS Ken Detzner, who claims he's all about "voter integrity," opposes the idea. Worse, his excuses don't pass the laugh test. In fact, they're astounding.
Yesterday he showed up voluntarily to explain why he thinks online registration is a bad idea.
Among the reasons the biggest joke of an SOS since Katherine Harris is opposed to online voter registration:
Detzner contended that not much planning or “thought” has gone into mandating online registration.
Legislators called him on this excuse, pointing out that they've been discussing this issue for two years. Detzner, of course, has been SOS since 2012. Given that elections are kind of his job, you would think he might have heard about these discussions. Perhaps he was too busy trying to bump eligible voters off the rolls when he was helping Rick Scott implement a voter purge to notice.
That botched voter purge brings us to his next excuse for opposing online voter registration:
Fla. Sec. Of State Detzner now saying flawed search for non-citizen voters is part of reason he's fearful abt online registration
If you're citing your own office's voter purge screw-up as a reason not to implement online registration, maybe Secretary Of State isn't the job for you? After all, if you can't be trusted with guarding the integrity of voter databases and information, then yes, you probably shouldn't be trusted to implement online voting registration, which leads to this little item that almost flew under the radar:
Elections officials, meanwhile, were livid to learn that Detzner released private data on more than 45,000 voters — including judges and police officers — and didn't alert them immediately.
Detzner's office acknowledged that the security breach on so-called high-risk voters — who should have been exempt from disclosure — included judges, police, firefighters, prosecutors, public defenders and crime victims and their family members, among others.
By law, those voters can choose to keep private information that's generally public on the voter rolls, including birth dates, home and email addresses, party affiliations and phone numbers if provided.
"Their safety has been compromised," said Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards.
Detzner's office said it gave the data to 15 individuals or groups that asked for copies of the statewide voter database, and cited a malfunction in automated software which it says has been fixed.
The secretary of state quietly announced the problem on March 31 and posted a news release on the agency's website, but neither the news media nor election supervisors were notified.
The release said all 15 recipients of the data have been told to disregard, destroy and/or return the information while it works to notify the affected people. The state did not identify who obtained the information.
Detzner's office called the released information "non-confidential" but election supervisors said that is wrong. Supervisors noted that the form provided by Detzner's office for high risk voters is called an "identification confidentiality request."
"This information is confidential by Florida statute," Edwards said. "We were not notified."
It seems SOS Detzner's office can't be trusted with private voter data, and we've already seen it can't be trusted to guard voter integrity.
The problem isn't that we shouldn't have online voter registration in Florida. The problem is we shouldn't let our current SOS have anything to do with the process of implementing online registration.
This also begs the question: Why is this man still on the job? Unfortunately, the answer may well be that this is why he IS still on the job. Rick Scott doesn't want it to be easier to vote in Florida, so by his standards, Detzner is just the man for the job.
This may be the first time I've ever agreed with a Republican in the legislature, but to quote Sen. Jack Latvala:
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:
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.
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.
People will recall President Eisenhower's farewell speech for his warning about the dangers of an emerging military-industrial complex.
It far overshadowed another powerful message in Eisenhower's January 1961 address - his appreciation for cooperation between Congress and his Administration during his eight years as President. But that point has become particularly relevant these days.
"Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation," Eisenhower said.
"The Congress and the Administration, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together."
It is troubling to contrast the former Republican president's view with the Republican norm today. Compared with the growth and relative well-being of the middle class in Eisenhower's day, today's trend is one of increasing income inequality between the rich and well-off and everyone else.
Eisenhower could say - as he did in his address - the nation avoided war during his tenure (despite crises in the Middle East and the belligerence of the Soviet Union). The United States remains at war today after more than 20 years of bloodshed, with some arch Conservatives in Congress seemingly eager for more.
Today, the Republicans' quest to separate themselves from nearly everything President Obama supports stands in contrast to what the Eisenhower Administration and Congress achieved to lead the country through an era of prosperity. But rather than Eisenhower, Republicans worship former President Reagan, whose rope-a-dope military budgets successfully dared the Soviet Union to keep pace and led to its demise, but whose trickle down/supply side economics has failed the majority of Americans today.
Yet wealthy business interests and the elected extremists they bankroll can rely on a voting bloc that amazingly supports candidates and policies that adversely affect their own self-interests.
One example involves a disconnect between health care politics and one's odds of facing serious medical problems. The American Cancer Society predicts the lifetime risk of developing cancer for men is slightly less than one in two and for women a little more than one in three. It predicts 1,658,370 new cancer cases and 589,430 cancer-related deaths in 2015 in the United States. Think back and into the future for several years and millions of people have been, or will be at risk. And that just involves cancer.
Do opponents of the Affordable Care Act or creation of a more inclusive, more equitable national health insurance system, get it? Instead, they vote to maintain moneyed health industry interests, while some embrace an ideology of excessive individualism, such as those at a 2011 Republican Presidential campaign debate in Tampa who shouted out support to let people die in lieu of enacting a better national health insurance program.
Until the majority of Americans make political decisions in their own self-interest, let alone combine self-interest and a long-term vision for the nation's well-being, the solution to issues involving the middle class and the poor can be captured in two words: Keep worrying.
But some leaders have not given up on the notion that if a majority of people would turn out and vote, that could advance the interests of the many over the few.
President Obama focused on the impact of the lack of voter turnout, which reached a 72-year-low in 2014 mid-term elections at 36.4 percent of eligible voters casting midterm election ballots in his recent South Florida Town Hall meeting on immigration:
"In the last election, a little over one-third of eligible voters voted. One-third! Two-thirds of the people who have the right to vote ... stayed home. I'm willing to bet that there are young people who have family members who are at risk of the existing immigration system who still didn't vote.
"Why are you not participating? There are war-torn countries, people full of poverty, who still voted 60, 70 percent. If here in the United States of America, we voted at 60 percent, 70 percent, it would transform our politics. Our Congress would be completely different. We would have already passed comprehensive immigration reform."
Progressive activists in a number of states have begun efforts to register more voters, against the tide of politically created obstacles to vote. One noteworthy effort, the "90 For 90 Voter Registration Project" in Virginia, has a goal to register at least 90 new voters in each of Virginia's 2,550 precincts.
It draws inspiration and the numbers 90 from Dr. William Ferguson Reid, a Virginia physician who turns 90 years old on March 18 (Wednesday). Wills Dahl, the author of a Baltimore Post-Examiner profile last month on Reid, characterized Fergie as a civil rights icon, appropriate for a man whose 1967 election as the first African American winning a seat in Virginia's General Assembly in the 20th century is but one of myriad achievements.
"So much money is involved in politics today, our only salvation is to get people to realize this is a war and our only weapon is to vote," Reid said in an interview Saturday with Beach Peanuts. "The Koch brothers are spending more than $800 million to influence the next election, but they have only two votes, the same two as you and your husband have. It is the only way to fight back."
Reid said the 90 For 90 movement began when he was asked what he'd like for his 90th birthday. It's gained momentum from his friends and a number of candidates vying in Virginia's off-year elections, with June 9th primaries. Adding nearly a quarter-million voters would seem to be a daunting goal with such short deadlines, but that's where Reid's experience, intellect and energy pay off.
"I have an advantage because I have been involved in politics since 1955 (creating a Virginia group called the Crusade For Voters), so I can see things from a long perspective" Reid said.
"It's not just about the next election. We can't do it overnight. Each election should be a dress rehearsal for the next one."
Guest blogger Ted Jackovics collaborated with Martha Jackovics on this post.
One of the first things Scott did when he took office was to make it harder for anyone to gain access to public records, while also making it cost prohibitive to the average citizen who has every right to know what's being done with their money, and on their behalf.
Just in the past few weeks, it seems that every day brings another revelation about something Scott and the GOP are trying to hide from the public. Because there are too many to warrant a separate post for each one, here are just a few recent glaring examples:
Department Of Children & Families Stops Reporting Child Deaths
An investigator prepared an incident report on the baby’s death later that day and emailed it to a supervisor.
The paper trail ended there.
Kimberly Welles, an administrator at the Department of Children & Families’ Southeast Region, deleted the incident report, email records show. And she instructed the supervisor who wrote it, Lindsey McCrudden, to deep-six it, as well.
“Please do not file this in the system. No incident reports right now on death cases,” Welles wrote in an email that day. “Please withdraw this and thanks. Will advise why later.”
The number of deaths hidden from the public? 30. When doing something to prevent more child deaths becomes too costly for Scott's bottom line, and attempts to weaken oversight fails, just stop reporting the deaths. Problem solved.
Gaming The Vote Behind Closed Doors
It's well known that Scott and the GOP have never met a voter suppression tactic they didn't like, and we've seen the results of their voter purges and those long lines in 2012. On top of that is the farce of redistricting which has been playing out in court the past couple weeks. When voters got Fair Districts Amendments on the ballot and later won, against the wishes of the GOP, they simply tried a new tactic: Drawing new district maps more favorably for themselves, and tried to hide their efforts from the voters they ignored. The trial has shown there was an obvious effort to make an end run around democracy, and one scientist testified that it was "virtually impossible" that the Legislature had drawn the current map without some intentional level of partisan bias."
[Jonathan] Katz said preliminary analysis of the 2012 election results showed the same bias.
“In this case they did a really good job of following the recipe about how to do a partisan gerrymander," Katz testified in the Leon County court room.
Katz was then asked if he had considered the question of intent, which he had not.
“Intent’s a legal question and I’m not a lawyer," Katz said.
"What my analysis is about is whether or not the plan shows statistically significant partisan bias. The answer is it does. They produced a partisan gerrymander.”
GOP Expressway Authority Officials Indicted For Violating Sunshine Laws
A grand jury investigating the expressway authority issued indictments today against former board member Scott Batterson; former state Rep. Chris Dorworth; and Dorworth's girlfriend Rebekah Hammond, a government-affairs liaison who works for FDOT, on violations of the state's public records law.
Batterson was also indicted by the grand jury on April 24 on three felonies, including bribery and soliciting compensation for official behavior. On those charges, he is accused of offering a $5 million a year authority contract to a consultant in exchange for hiring some of his friends. He is free on $3,000 bail.
The grand jury had met this morning and into the afternoon, with former board member Marco Pena testifying at least part of the morning.
Never mind that no other Florida Governor has done so, Rick Scott adds his travel details to the list of things that he feels are none of voter's business. He got rid of the state plane after taking office, and claimed his own plane would save the state money. But was that really the motivation, or was it an excuse to try and hide his travels from the public? While that plane may be his, or his wife's, who is paying the expenses for it? No idea, as he keeps most of that information under wraps. He says it's for "security reasons." Perhaps he means having the security of knowing taxpayers won't be able to tell what is and isn't determined to be state business by the governor himself?
The records should also show who is traveling with the governor, information that advocates said needs to be part of the public record.
“This is travel that has already occurred,” said Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation, a non-partisan open government advocacy group. “Our courts have said that exemptions to the right of access, we have a constitutional right of access to the records of government are to be strictly construed and narrowly applied.”
“It’s a question of oversight and accountability. It’s also a question of transparency,” said Petersen. “We want to know who the governor is meeting with, where the governor is going.”
Again, none of your business, according to Governor Transparency.
Blind Trust? Blind To Who, Exactly?
Another "first" for a governor in Florida is Rick Scott's famous "blind trust." You know, keeping his investments and assets a secret so as not to appear that he's benefiting from any legislation or actions he makes? It's supposed to be blind to Scott, but few believe this. Because taxpayers are blinded as well, a challenge was filed charging that it violates Sunshine laws:
A challenge to the blind trust law was brought two weeks ago by Jim Apthorp, a top aide to the late Gov. Reubin Askew, the driving force behind the voter-approved 1976 "Sunshine Amendment" that made financial disclosure part of Florida's Constitution. Apthorp's lawsuit asked the Florida Supreme Court to require that Secretary of State Ken Detzner, the state's chief elections official and a Scott appointee, reject the qualifying papers of any candidate who had a blind trust.
More than a dozen Florida news organizations filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Apthorp's lawsuit.
Unfortunately, a judge sided with Scott, saying there's no urgency to look into Scott's net worth of $83.8 million.
Nope. Transparency is merely a talking point for Rick Scott and any information Floridians get from him will be on a need to know basis determined by him. Apparently he feels there's little they need to know.
