REPORT: Rick Scott’s Anti-Voter Effort Grinds Democratic Registration To A Halt
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/28/755631/rick-scott-anti-voter-registration-halt/
REPORT: Rick Scotts Anti-Voter Effort Grinds Democratic Registration To A Halt
By Josh Israel on Aug 28, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Last July, a Florida voter suppression law enacted by the state legislatures Republican majority and signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) went into effect, putting major new restrictions on groups who work to register new voters.
HB 1355 imposed harsh new restrictions on third-party voter registration groups, requiring them to turn in completed registration forms 48 hours to the minute after completion, or face fines. Though the bill was put on hold in late May by a federal judge, a new report shows the damage was done: Democratic voter registration in Florida ground to a virtual standstill.
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Macnab notes that the
rule may have disproportionately hurt Democratic registration as groups often target areas that lean Democratic college campuses, senior centers and low-income communities.
Combined with the Scott administrations failed attempts attempts to reduce the number of hours for early voting and to purge citizens from the voter rolls, a clear pattern emerges.
Even with court intervention to stop apparently illegal voter suppression efforts like HB 1355, reports like this expose the irreparable harm already done to American democracy.