By any fair measure, the voting fiasco in Florida this year was a national embarrassment, but it was also the result of a deliberate plan -- Gov. Rick Scott (R) and other Republican policymakers made it more difficult to vote in order to help their party. (It didn't work; Democrats had a very good year in the Sunshine State.)
But now that the election is over, can Scott offer a defense of this fiasco? As he made clear yesterday, the far-right governor doesn't think anything went wrong.
Aviva Shen flagged this clip from the CBS affiliate in Orlando, which pressed Rick Scott on the ridiculously long voting lines in the state. "Well, the right thing happened," the Republican said. "4.4 million people came out and voted either absentee or early. On Election Day we had 20 times as many polling locations than we did on early voting. So we did the right thing."
In fact, Scott kept repeating that same phrase, "We did the right thing," over and over again, as if it were a scripted talking point his political aides told him to repeat ad nauseam to every question on the matter.
Florida's problem won't be resolved so long as Florida's governor pretends it doesn't exist.
For what it's worth, Florida still hasn't finished counting its votes, but hopes to have things wrapped up tomorrow.
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Thats pretty much what I've been posting to the Right Wingers in the local papers.
You're in luck, ObamaCare has a Mental Health Provision.
You can get help.
But first you have to realize you have a problem.
.
He's the ex CEO of a health empire, perhaps we should check the meds he is taking already?
r.scott , What a totaly self-absorbed~Ignorant Twit ~ He and many others "like him" do Not deserve the positions that they are in , at least Not In AMERICA !
And Gov. Scott along with his cohorts in state governments around the nation are the reason that we NEED federal voting laws to at least set down some regulations for basic access to voting for everyone in this nation! Obamacare may help them with their pre-existing mental defects - but in the meantime WE the PEOPLE need to have the reassurance that disenfranchisement of our voting rights not be undermined by partisan hacks!
Romney has apparently already conceded Florida, though:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/romney-concedes-defeat-in-florida-as-votes-continue-to-be-counted
Yes, but has Florida's governer?
Let's leave it up to the voters in Florida to decide if they "did the right thing", or will they have such a short memory that it doesn't matter? More than one Governor has been bounced because they botched an event.
I'd like to see a campaign ad showing images of all of the long lines with Scott's voice repeating "we did the right thing".
Great idea @MindBend!! I can't understand why people forget so easily.
He hasn't botched just an event, he has botched the entire state. He is so far, far right as to be questioned mentally. Florida can't wait to get rid of him.
He did the far, far right thing.
He explained that fairly clearly.
Wow, doing the right thing and actually counting votes.
I guess this far South, it's no longer pretzel logic, it is in fact cracker logic.
A note of irony, not to disparage the entire state but, take the tour at Gatorland near Orlando and at the wrestling act, perhaps the wrangler still relates how the word cracker came to be.
After the settlers took the land from the Indians, raising cattle was hard especially in the palmetto scrub, and as they herded through all of that, up high on the horse, a bull hip was used to "crack" and scare the bovines into staying on track.
Somehow, Rick Scott seems to live that dream rhetorically.
Actually, "cracker" didn't come from that. It comes from the term "cracking trader," a description of the Scotch-Irish con artists, er, I mean traveling salesmen, who used to bring their goods up into the hills, where they took the hillbillies for everything they had. So "cracker" originally meant (and as Scott demonstrates, still does) "a good con artist."
There's only one problem with Florida's election establishment: rank incompetency, from the top down, obviously.
Lets face it he doesn't want to appear to have any impropriety, after all that could cost him. So He plays dumb. But he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and lying or pretending isn't going to change a thing.
Florida will do the right thing when they take this felon out and leave him dangling from one of the trees in front of the capitol.
Actually, just getting him out of the governorship should be fine. Is it possible to impeach him?
Let's just hope Florida voters are smart enough to vote him out in 2014. Does anybody know if Charlie Crist is looking to make a comeback as a Dem?
I view Scott, and indeed Romney, as a side effect of the failed Walker recall. Had Walker been ousted, I believe the power these right-wing governers have percieved themselves to have would have been checked somewhat. Scott and AZ's Brewer behave with the recklessness of ones who believe themselves higher up the political food chain than they really are.
The man is in denial. The whole Republican party is in denial. They don't get it.
Long lines to vote is unacceptable. Governor Scott you did the wrong thing. You job is
to take care of the people of Florida. Maybe next election day you will remember that.
@TCinLA That's not even remotely funny. We are a rule of law nation. Let's not resort to GOP tactics.
Hear hear, and amen! I like TC, and generally agree with his commentary. But there's been more than enough "strange fruit" in our country. No more...
Got Enraged and Engaged:
Mooched the Vote 2012!
;-)
Scott is a terrible Governor but you need to also blame those who put him in power. Fla. gets what Fla. voted for.... and that now includes being the laughing stock of the nation.
Scott can ignore the problem, but he does so at his own peril. The USAG might have different ideas about the conduct of the election. And he does not need a Republican governor or legislature to approve his actions. Holder needs to write a nice letter to Scott inviting him and the legislature to voluntarily change voting procedures with an implied threat that doing nothing will result in federal action.
Holder hasn't done much as AG to solve this or any other problem created by people like Scott. He's supposed to be resigning soon. Let's hope that the next AG shows more resolve and pushes back against things like voter suppression schemes.
OK, OK, I admit it. I have a problem. Rick Scott is the governor of my state.
Scott is right. He did do the "right thing" which was to expose how big of a baffoon this Governor is which will be validated should he decide to run for any future political office.
Governor Scott, if by 'we did the right thing' you meant you suppressed Floridians' rights, then we're agreed.
Here's a funny thing: the Florida Division of Elections has a director, but the official website doesn't identify him — even on the page headlined 'Division Director's Office.' Kinda takes the snap out of any complaints a voter might want to file.
The site does offer a way to complain:
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/complaints/index.shtml
Or voters can register their concerns directly with Gov. Scott:
Office of Governor Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
(850) 488-7146
I agree with Rick Scott, he did the right thing- the radical right wing thing!
We can put a man on the moon but we can't figure out how to accommodate the vote? PLEASE!!! How stupid does Rick think we are not to see thru. his b.s.?
Small correction- Channel 9 is ABC, Channel 6 is CBS in Orlando. : )
Regardless, Florida is a place I am glad to be FROM (as in 'never going back there')
Small correction- minor really, but Channel 9 is ABC and Channel 6 is CBS in Orlando.
God told Scott that Mitt had to win so he feels like he did the right thing.
I may be a bit out of step with y'all but I'm actually kind of happy at how this turned out (wouldn't want to do it again, mind.) Scott doubling down on it is all the better.
Not that I'm a fan of his, though. I consider Rick Scott to be in the Mourdock/Akin category: more danger to their side than to their enemies. And so by all means keep it up, Rick -- just keep reminding Floridians that you like long lines to get to where you have to jump hoops to vote.
dupe
When he comes up for election next, he better make sure no one gets to vote but him.
Sir Ricks-A-Lot's rap:
I like big lines and I can not lie
You other GOPers can't deny
That when a voter walks in with a ballot to cast
And a hanging chad to place
You get sprung
Wanna pull up tough...
Got Enraged and Engaged:
Mooched the Vote 2012!
;-)
Most efficiency experts will agree that "standardization" of anything will make it much easier to implement, operate, or understand across a wide range of locations and users. This model is most easily illistrated by the menues of the "Fast Food" chains...the "Big Mac" in Bellingham, Washington is the same one you get in Birmingham, Alabama!
There is no legitimate reason to oppose a Standardized National Voting Method, with all it's ramifications and cost of implementation. A one time expense, and the elimination of all the currant voting problems would certainly make it worth the effort!
Most Americans likely missed it, but in a post-election analysis on Nov. 8, 2012 in the Miami Herald (which incidentally endorsed Mitt Romney for President) Mr. Brett Doster, Florida Republican Party operative and advisor for the Mitt Romney campaign, made the following statement (direct quote):
"We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn't, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won't happen again."
Note here what he is talking about - not reforming the Florida election process to make it more fair and even-handed, but going even further with the Republican dirty tricks than they did this time.
Truth be told, the Florida Republican Party didn't actually "leave much on the table":
--they conducted voter purges of bona fide U.S. citizens who profiled as likely Democratic Party voters;
--they hired and paid several million dollars for "consultants" to register voters at supermarkets and malls around the state, but only filed with the Registrars the forms of those who listed their party of preference as Republican, and actually threw our the forms of citizens listing themselves as Democrats - their forms were found in dumpsters;
--Republican governor Rick Scott, a Tea Party darling, cut back on early voting places, days and hours because in the last election it was observed that people voting pro/Democratic made use of these early voting opportunities;
--they intentionally mis-allocated resources by over-staffing Republican-leaning neighborhoods, while massively short-changing Democratic-leaning neighborhoods with personnel and equipment; for working people, minorities, and the poor, this resulted in lines around city blocks and waits of 4, 6, and 8 hours to cast a vote. Voters with a health condition, or workers needing to show up for the evening or night shift were forced to leave the lines without casting their votes;
--poll workers reported that thousands of absentee ballots were dropped off at the polling stations just before closing time, raising the question of stuffed ballot boxes and forged/fraudulently filed absentee ballots;
--a concern everywhere was the proliferation of unregulated electronic voting machines, unregulated software and software patches to those machines, and insecure data lines, leaving the voting tabulations open to "man-in-the-middle" hacking to falsify election results coming from those machines.
So what does Republican operative Mr. Brett Doster really mean? Is he telling us that he feels sick because he and his organization didn't carry out enough election fraud and manipulation? Is he telling us he and his Republican Party operatives intend to double down on such illegal voter fraud activities in the next elections? Is he telling us he is prepared to do, without hesitation or inhibition, anything and everything necessary to throw the next elections to the radical extremists in control of the Republican Party of Florida, no matter how badly outvoted they are by the people of Florida?
When someone who is responsible for all the Republican Party has done to manipulate this election comes out and says "I can assure you we will never fall short again" - I want to know where is the United States Justice Department, the FBI, the US Attorney for Southern Florida and the State Police, and Miami-Dade CSI? Do we live in a country where criminals can freely announce their crimes in advance, after having already committed crimes before everyone's eyes, and yet no one will hold them to account, charge them, arraign, prosecute, or sentence them to terms in jail?
A democracy that does not defend itself against those who would destroy the foundation of our freedom - fair, and open elections, and the guaranteed right of every citizen to cast his or her vote, that democracy is doomed to fail. Voter fraud and election fraud are criminal offenses, and must be prosecuted.
If the Party in Charge in Florida, the Republican Party of Rick Scott, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature, and Miami-Dade Republican Mayor Carlos Gimenez, cannot be expected to bring charges against themselves, then the Federal Government must step in here and bring justice for the citizens and voters of Florida. Doesn't it seem quite clear from this election that nothing short of serving time in a state or federal penitentiary can stop these criminal election fraud activities?