Columns
Courts Should Toss Out All Early Voting
Around the State
The upshot is that Florida must reinstate those days in the five Florida counties covered by federal voting laws — Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe. These counties, unlike the others in the state, are covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Maybe I just don't get it.
Twelve years ago anybody in Florida with a voting card -- minorities, WASPs, felons, non-English speakers -- they all had early voting if they wanted it. It's called the absentee ballot. If they didn't ask to vote absentee, they had one day to cast their ballot. It fell on a Tuesday.
Do you remember that? When we only had Voting Day? Now we've got a voting season, a whole mess of days we submit to costly court fights and partisan showmanship.
Yet along comes a group called Project Vote, full of moral outrage because in 2011 the state passed a law that cut early voting days back from 12 to eight.
Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, says the new Florida law "is part of a coordinated and undemocratic effort by some politicians to erect barriers to the ballot box."
Really? Barriers to the ballot box?
No matter what your social circumstance, you can't find one day out of eight that works for you? There's no time in that vast window of days to pick yourself up out of your armchair and get to the polling place before or after work?
If I were a minority, I would feel mighty insulted. I would think Slater and Project Vote and progressives of their ilk are trying to make me look stupid and incapable of deciding for myself how and whether to vote -- and even who to vote for. Why, I would wonder, do they think if I can't vote at my church on a Sunday morning, I'll be turned off participating in the election process?
I admit, I have since 2001 in Florida when early voting began been against it. I've written about it before. It is unnecessary, costly and indulgent.
Early voting encourages itchy trigger fingers and lack of preparation in voters.
I would change my opinion in a heartbeat if early voting did the thing it was invented to do, the thing legislators originally had predicted – send folks flocking to the polls. It does not.
While it's true, more people are voting early year after year, it doesn't mean more people overall are voting. Quite the opposite. Despite the vast voting window in 2002, during the pilot project, for example, participation all over the state was virtually unchanged. Only 55 percent of registered voters cast ballots statewide, one of the lowest percentages in recent elections.
The Division of Elections displays online a record of voter turnout in Florida since 1954. See for yourself. Except in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected, voter turnout generally was stronger in the years before early voting catered to Floridians’ need for convenience.
The idea that shaving a few days off early voting season could deprive a single Florida voter, regardless of circumstance, of his opportunity to vote probably has the Founding Fathers turning in their graves.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
Comments (22)
That blacks are not smart enough to get IDs so they shouldn't be necessary.
Afterall, saying dumb things seems to be all the rage among Republicans this week, be it in Florida, Missouri or Ohio.
why does the author assume everyone else sits around in a chair all day like she does?
Your points get lost in your shrillness.
Oh, and you never make any points despite your obsession with this site.
This is based on:
1.The musings are not entirely improbable and sometimes even have some element of truth. They don't always appear to be solely a manifestation of delusion or some broader type of psychosis, although upon confrontation, you don't admit them to be untrue, which may indicate a more serious disorder.
2.The fabricative tendency appears to be long lasting in your case, not provoked by just the immediate situation, but as an innate trait.
3.The musings tend toward presenting the lie and espouser favorably.
Go ahead, and just admit to politics of the "Big Lie" and you take the first steps to recovery and sanity. Here's hoping you can take that first step.
In your world, judges are political partisans to spin the law to your idealogy, aren't they.
No one is trying to get non-citizens (or even the non-living) to vote, that's just a shrill imaginary conspiracy theory of the far-right. It's crazy, and now both Republican and Democratic appointed judges are ruling so. Can't stand it, can you?
Once again, Pathetic.
FLASH! In the REAL world, many judges ARE political partisans spinning the law to THEIR ideology. See: Sotomayor, Kagan, Ginsberg. As for Bush appointees like Roberts, you are right. I can't explain his most recent ruling... other than the depressing statement that we deserve the government we elect. Hopefully we can fix some of that in November, though the Constitution is supposed to prevent abuse even (especially) from our elected leaders.
Gee . . . don't like Democratic appointed judges . . . don't like Republican appointed judges . . . you really are pretty much on the far, far right, aren't you.
And you think Romney's your savior?
Pathetic, and living in NeverNeverLand.
You really don't get it, do you, even after multiple court losses.
PATHETIC!
P.S. - In related election news not being reported by Nancy - Way to go, Susan Bucher! - a 68% to 28% margin of victory!
I am reminded of the men of women in Iraq who for the first time in decades participated in a free and fair election. They were threatened with death if they voted. Yet they came from all over. Many walked for miles to cast their vote. Their reward was a purple thumb or finger stained with the ink of freedom. Then they walked home. One could not blame them if they shoved their ink stained hand into their pockets. That was not the case. The proudly showed their hands and proclaimed Iraq theirs. With the treat of death these ordinary citizens understood that voting was important. Important enough to risk their lives.
What a sick lazy nation we have become.
EQUALLY PATHETIC.
As an Army captain, I was detailed to help observe the first Iraqi vote. It brought tears to my eyes because of the contrast to the lethargy I had witnessed back home. These people were brave, proud and determined.
You, Nancy and ConservativeVoice apparently do not believe in, or simply deny, the three judge appeals court finding " 'that minority voters will be disproportionately affected by the changes in early voting procedures' and that the change in the law 'would impose a sufficiently material burden to cause some reasonable minority voters not to vote.' "
And since 50% of all minority voting in 2008 in Florida was done in early voting, particularly on the Sunday before election day, guess what the target has been for Republicans for early voting elimination - exactly those dates and times most likely to be utilized by minorities . . .that's called illegal voter suppression.
I share your frustration about America's low turnout, particularly as Florida has somewhere around 400,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. We need to be working on ways to expand legal voter turnout, not suppress it.
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