This year, Florida has operated under a two-tiered system for voting. Counties not covered by the Voting Rights Act have held elections with the state's newly narrowed window for early voting. The five counties covered by the Voting Rights Act have continued with the old system of 14 days, including some weekend hours.
The result, write Dan Smith and Michael Herron of ElectionSmith, is our first glimpse of the effect early voting has on turnout. In short, the Voting Rights counties historically have lower turnout than the others, but the gap narrows when early voting is in effect – from 5.66 percent in 2008 under the old system to 3.23 percent this year. From ElectionSmith:
So, what are we to make of this? Admittedly, the turnout gap between the five Section 5 and the other 62 counties is not huge, but it is indicative that HB 1355 may be depressing turnout in those counties that must comply with the new, more restrictive law. And, it is certainly arguable that since registered voters in the five Section 5 counties have historically relied more heavily on early voting in past elections, and if early voting days and hours are reduced in those counties if HB 1355 is eventually upheld, their comparatively lower turnout levels might take even more of a hit.
The ElectionSmith post is a deep, geeky dive into an emerging story. They won't know until after the 2012 election the full impact of early voting.
Which has not stopped Governor Rick Scott's administration from trying to cut the number of days. Today the Florida Secretary of State got four of the five counties to sign on for fewer days, on the premise that county clerks can expand the number of hours each day. The state wants to use their assent to persuade a court that it's OK to narrow the window from 14 days to eight. The lone holdout county is in the Keys. From the Miami Herald:
"What I told them is that the days are more important than the hours," said Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer, a Republican who has held the post for 24 years. In every election in the Keys, Sawyer said, early voting participation has increased. "It's working for us," he said. "I told them, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
Also today, six African-American members of the Florida legislature stopped by Scott's office to ask for a meeting so they could make the case for weekend voting. A Scott staffer told them the governor was busy today.
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The GOTP have no problem discarding morality to get their way! SMH!
What do you expect from a convicted felon? Every day in every way we get to see how today's "Republican" Party has become the Fascist Party - out-of-control, wallowing in illegality and corruption, totally under the domination of the ciorporate scum...
What is it about the South that creates such a monument to moron stupidity as everything about Southern "Kulcha" does? The criminal politicians, the white moron voters. Is it something in the air? The water?
TC....you offend the all people from the (very populous) South with your "Fascist" and "moronic" rants. Please balance your California state budget so the rest of the country doesn't have to bail out folks that can't seem to balance a simple checkbook. Who's the moron?
It's VoucherCare or Medicare. Need to keep that front and forward in everyone's mind.
Use the term and keep the discussion going.
Excellent framing, @Is It Over Yet.
It is disgusting how republicans have decided that lying about their candidates and their opponents isn't enough so they have to do whatever they can to rig the system. All of these changes making it harder to vote and purging voter lists are clearly only to suppress votes among likely democratic voters. They even admit as much, although not normally in public.
The only saving grace to all of this is that demographics are against them. There are already more "minority" children being born each year in this country than white. As the profile of the population continues to change the current composition of the republican party will not be able to win any elections other than perhaps in a few Southern and Western states. The real question is how much harm will they be able to do to this country until they become irrelevant.
when/if they get power at the fed level we'll see national policies as in the Repug-led states organized by ALEC. You KNOW ALEC has a long list of new legislation to ensure the few uberwealthy get their way on a national level. Forget EPA, SEC, etc. Watch out for whiplash as they disenfranchise people without property, reduce their own taxes to zilch while the rest of us peons have to "broaden the base" etc. Like what they did in Wis and MI, it'll be coming to the US next.
The republicans who are working to restrict the right to vote are spitting on the graves of every service person who has given their life to defend democracy. They have lost their right to call themselves Americans.
We could try some reverse psychology here: get BHO to "embrace" voting restrictions, while some liberal web sites start posting secret new evidence shows Repugs will be harder hit by the restrictions than Dems after all (a lot of old people are Repub after all and are too ill-informed to vote in their own best financial interest) -- and before long the Repugs might do an about-face and personally register all those people after all. If BHO is for it, they CAN'T be!!! Not that I trust this would work, of course, but in this through-the-looking-glass nation, it's almost conceivable!
Jeez, what a country. Is there any chance the legal challenges can help or are we all just watching this big slow-motion crash of a very UNdemocratic, stolen/purchased "election" happen??? What can we little guys do NOW? You can bet they are not going to let us ask for a recount. This is like some sci fi novel. Soylent green, here we come.
We have national holidays like presidents day or Christmas and Thanksgiving so why not make election day a national holiday?
Truth be told none of the elected officials want a true majority to vote. Of course as we are witnessing, the repunlicans fear good voter turnout. Wonder why?
Folks, let's boil all of this down into a nutshell of 2 questions:
1. Do you think that only U.S. citizens should vote in the United States or does everyone that happens to be in the U.S. on our election days deserve to vote?
2. If you believe in the former, how can we ensure that only citizens vote?
The rest of the dialogue here is pure blabber.
Let my people vote!
Ohio people should demonstrate with a blue finger just as the citizens in Iraq did due to the 5,000 American lives lost for their right.
Did you see tonight's spot on Ohio Secretary of State John Husted trying to fire Democrat Board of Election members for keeping early voting hours set in 2008? Sign the petition and tell him he is on the wrong side. We should not limit voting. Sign the petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ohio-secretary-of-state-john-husted-keep-access-to-voting-polls-open
about 15 years ago at a family reunion in the midwest, older relatives made an interesting statement the current GOP seems to like - "you should get more votes for more money you make, like one vote for every $10K/year you get" ...so they may have got their wish by taking the votes away from poorer folks and young voters.
All this debate over voting methods and the Republican shenanigans to curtail opposition votes, puzzles me. Why are we so focused on traditional methods like standing in lines for a booth, absentee ballots and paperless voting machines? This is the 21st century and we should be voting online from our very own personal computers. If FaceBook can support nearly a billion users world-wide with a much more complicated application, why can't we bite the bullet and offer it to our electorate. Even registering to vote could be assisted but that would/should require a confirming personal visit.
If this option was available, most computer literate people would use it and that would shorten the long lines on voting day. The young demographic would jump on this immediately as they don't want to stand in lines. Older people would likely still go to the polls but know that the lines would be shorter.
Yes, there are hurdles to overcome like potential cheating but they can be overcome. I am a software professional and know that real checks and balances can be imposed to overcome those concerns. Another thing, we all know that every Republican would be against this idea immediately. That alone is reason to proceed.