Posted by MG on November 04, 2012 at 08:28:04
In Florida it started with shutting down community-based voter registration drives, the Republican State Legislature enacted a law forcing groups like the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote to shut down their registration programs. These community groups usually help youth, minority and low-income voters, who have more limited opportunities to register.
Next, Republican Gov. Rick Scott passed a law cutting early voting in half, also eliminating early voting the Sunday before the election when African-American churches have a tradition of going together to early voting sites. In 2008, when early voting was twice as long as it is now, African-Americans voted early in huge numbers and helped Obama win Florida.
There's more to than this that's gone on in Florida, these are just two of the main ploys they've enacted.
Shame on the Republicans responsible for the numerous efforts in many states to make it more difficult or impossible for likely Obama voters to vote or to have their vote counted. I could list quite a few more examples. But it has been especially blatant in Florida and Ohio where the election could very well be decided.
In Ohio, the Republican in charge of elections is still at it, just last Friday--only 4 days before the election, Jon Husted issued a last minute directive ensuring that many provisional ballots get discarded. On Monday, a court is going to decide if the directive is legal. Like his efforts to curtail early voting in Ohio hopefully the courts will shoot him down on this one too. The Supreme Courst wouldn't even take his case for restricting early voting. He lost in the courts because his efforts make it harder for people to vote were was partisan.
To conclude: there's only one reason why Republicans in Florida and Ohio don't like early voting: Early voters are usually from minority groups with lower incomes, which means that they don't have the kind of jobs that give them an opportunity to take time off work on election day.