Justice Department Cracking Down on Florida Voter Suppression

Finally.

Florida’s voter suppression law goes way beyond the assembly-line Voter I.D. laws that are being passed in lockstep by the red states.  At least with these Voter I.D. laws, conservatives can pretend they’re cracking down on the non-existent problem of “voter fraud.”

But according to Florida’s teatard legislature and governor, voter registration drives are the REAL threat to America.  Oh, and early voting too.  How could registering voters — and giving voters a chance to vote early — possibly encourage voter fraud???

If you listen to rightwing demagogues, there’s apparently no greater threat to America’s moral fiber than the League of Women Voters.  Under Florida’s “Don’t Let the Peons Vote” law, anyone conducting a voter registration drive is required to:  1) get permission from the state; and 2) turn in each voter registration card within 48 hours after the voter has filled it out.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but what are some of the dangers to our democracy if a voter registration card isn’t turned in within 48 hours?  The League of Women Voters has stopped their voter registration drives, out of fear of being fined for “violations.”

The Colbert Report was joking about Florida’s “Stop The Vote” law the other night.

The League of Women Voters, the Brennan Center and Rock The Vote are all fighting this law in court.  The president of Rock The Vote said the law would “prevent organizations like Rock the Vote from educating and engaging young people in our political process and go against the very principles our country was founded on.”

Come on Justice Department — don’t let Florida turn the clock back to the 1950s.

Florida Legislature Doesn’t Want YOU to Vote

It’s bad enough so many state legislatures have simultaneously — as ordered by their corporate masters — passed laws requiring a photo ID in order to vote. But apparently even this isn’t enough. Florida, in addition to their Koch-ordered Voter ID law, has also passed a law cracking down on those commie rabble-rousing voter registration drives.

Whew!

Nothing strikes terror into the hearts of our “elected” corporate prostitutes like the specter of the League of Women Voters encouraging the riffraff to vote.

Florida’s new law, HB 1355, has shortened the period for early voting, and voters are no longer able to change their address at the polls. Most importantly, third party registration groups have been curtailed. These groups are facing Draconian penalties if they haven’t turned in all voter registration cards within 48 hours after they’ve been filled out.

The Florida League of Women Voters has already dropped their registration programs because of this law. The League’s president, Deirdre MacNabb, said:

“When we looked at the laws, we felt that this would put our thousands of volunteers across the state who have registered voters for 70 years in Florida at a grave disadvantage.”

She said volunteers would need:

“…a secretary on one hand and a lawyer on the other hand as they registered voters. We did not feel that we as an organization could ask our volunteers to undergo that kind of vague, restrictive and punitive restriction which the legislature has tried to impose. I think the outcome will very clearly be much less opportunity to new eligible voters to have access to third-party registration groups. We think it will make it likely we will see far more use of provisional ballots, and it will be much less convenient, especially for working citizens, to get to the polls for early voting.”

Congratulations Teatards.

In a related story, let’s see how things are working out for the author of Ohio’s Voter ID law, Rep. Robert Mecklenborg. He thought it seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he says “Karma’s a bitch.”