FL GOP moves to restrict voter registration: cuts off public debate

[nashville_brook]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locelect18041809apr18,0,3857444.story

Florida GOP moves to restrict voter groups
By Aaron Deslatte | Tallahassee Bureau
April 18, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Republicans in the Legislature, still smarting from massive voter-registration drives in the 2008 elections, want to crack down on activist voter groups and make it harder for voters with questionable credentials to cast ballots.

A sweeping elections package was rammed through the House Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Council early Friday morning in an unusually rushed hearing. Public testimony was cut off, and Democrats were given three minutes to debate the bill.

The abrupt maneuver to squelch debate was blasted by Democrats, as well as a coalition of groups including the Florida League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"There is nothing more sacred to us than our right to vote," Democratic Leader Franklin Sands of Weston complained on the House floor.


The House bill, PCB-EDCA 09-08, sponsored by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, is similar to SB 956, which was quickly shuttled through a Senate committee Thursdday. Both bills surfaced in the stretch run of the 60-day session, following a 2008 election cycle that saw Republicans complain bitterly about massive voter-registration efforts by groups such as ACORN. Thanks in part to these groups, Democratic voter registration — and turnout — surged last year.

[peace frog]

1. I love the smell of desperation in the morning

Natural that the GOPers, who are barely holding their own in a state that has begun to lean blue for the first time in three decades, are changing voter law to suit their nefarious purposes. Think of the ignominy should they lose Florida, the state Jeb Bush made safe for wingnuts for ever and ever, amen.

[newfie11]

2. they won't be happy until no one but a repug is allowed to vote n/t

[ThomCat]

4. You are exactly right.

They want to re-implement poll taxes, voter tests, and voter IDs, and if those don't work then they'll push for direct eligibility restrictions to keep out the undesirables. :(

If they had their way then only property owning white men would be able to vote, just the way it was 200 years ago.

[csziggy]

3. Another story on the same subject - Cross posted from the Florida Forum

Central Florida Republicans push through elections crackdown
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 17, 2009 9:47:47 AM

TALLAHASSEE – Judging by the reception from Democrats, a House Republican elections package designed to crack down on signature-gathering groups unveiled late last night is going to cause some fireworks over the last two weeks of session.

The sweeping elections package was rammed through the House Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Council Friday morning in an unusually rushed hearing where public debate was cut off and the minority-party was given three minutes to debate it.

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, is similar to a version quickly shuttled through a Senate committee Thursday, and is largely intended to crack down on third-party interest groups that attempt to gather signatures to amend Florida’s constitution.

<SNIP>

Among many changes, the bill requires the groups to register their signature-gatherers with the state and report where they’re operating every three months. Voter-registration groups would have five days to turn in their registrations after they’re collected (the Senate requires a 48-hour turnaround on submitting registrations).

<SNIP>

The bill would also require county supervisors to more frequently purge their voter files of voters that cannot be verified. And perhaps most interestingly, it repeals a law passed in 2007 that allows state officeholders to seek federal office without resigning their state seats. The exemption was enacted that year so Gov. Charlie Crist could run on a presidential ticket without resigning, but the change could force several state senators considering federal office in 2010 to re-think their options.

More: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/04/central-florida-republicans-push-through-elections-crackdown.html

[nashville_brook]

5. thanks for this! Hometown Democracy has really threatened these business-interest groups.

they can't have a real participatory democracy -- that would just be too risky.

[burning rain]

6. Where does Crist stand on this?

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