Florida's DeSantis signs new voting restrictions into law, making the state the latest to add hurdle

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed broad legislation Thursday morning that imposes new rules on voting and new penalties for those who do not follow them, hailing the measures as necessary to shore up public faith in elections even as critics accused him of trying to make it harder to vote, particularly for people of color.

Like similar bills that Republicans are pushing in dozens of state legislatures across the country, the Florida law adds hurdles to voting by mail, restricts the use of drop boxes and prohibits any actions that could influence those standing in line to vote, which voting rights advocates said is likely to discourage nonpartisan groups from offering food or water to voters as they wait in the hot Florida sun.

Democrats and voting rights advocates accused Republicans of trying to make it harder for some Floridians to cast ballots — and to appease constituents who believe Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen. Both Democrats and Republicans, including DeSantis, hailed Florida’s administration of the November 2020 elections as a model for the nation. Trump won the state by more than three percentage points.

Critics said the bill curtails poll access in a variety of ways that will intimidate, confuse and otherwise make it harder for people to vote by mail, which is popular in Florida. In November, more than 4.8 million Floridians — more than 40 percent of the fall electorate — cast mail ballots. The new hurdles could produce longer lines during both early in-person and Election Day voting, critics said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-voting-law/2021/05/06/f2bd20b6-ae0f-11eb-ab4c-986555a1c511_story.html

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Full headline: Florida’s DeSantis signs new voting restrictions into law, making the state the latest to add hurdles to the voting process

[lark]

1. Hope this fucks them up with the elderly right wingers here - there's lots of them!

Wish the rich had never discovered my state so we could go blue like we used to be. Now the rich own FL and are so busy fucking it up. Makes me very sad.

[JohnSJ]

3. I think the state could be blue if the Latinos in the state went Democratic big time

[Submariner]

4. My guess is DiSantos will set up a precinct within the White Power Villages Apartments

in places like Orlando, to ensure the racist white trash get their votes counted.

[lark]

6. Yeah, you know he will.

However he can't set up precincts ast every Assisted Living and Nursing Home here - there are way too many and those people were used to voting absentee. Mom lived in 1 of those places for 4 years and we visited every place in Jax. before picking one.

[ananda]

9. Lawsuits have been filed at least.

I hope they file against Texas too.

https://mobile.twitter.com/marceelias/status/1390291923819188231

Lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Black Voters Matters Fund, Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and individual voters against all 67 Florida counties challenging the voter suppression law, SB 90. The case claims that SB 90’s drop-box restrictions, vote by mail repeat request requirement, volunteer assistance ban, deceptive registration warning and food and water ban violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

[lark]

13. Yes, make every stupid rw state that does this pay and pay and pay.

Every single one of them needs to lose in court, only they and drumpf have packed the courts so much, we can't even count on that.

Damn we need Mancin to move off the dime and vote to end the filibuster for all judicial and voting matters - passing the voting rights bill is the only way we can thrive as a country and not be taken over by rw haters because too many of our folks aren't allowed to vote..

[DENVERPOPS]

18. Manchin is

bathing in his self glory and grand standing. He doesn't seem to care about the nation, only his egomaniacal interference and collecting all the attention on himself. He has been basically a nobody all his life, and has found a way to at least make himself feel relevant for the first time in his life. Can a Senator be subjected to a re-call election?????? If so, now would be the time, and give him truly a taste of his own bullshit.......Do we need just one more Senator to obliterate this self aggrandizing asshole forever?????????
Maybe we can get one or more of the Repub Senators, whose opinion has made them the target of the Repubs, who have insured they have NO future with the Republican Party, to come over to our side or at least become an independent for the sake of the U.S......

[lark]

23. Yes, I am glad to see this though Scott stacked the courts with rw'ers.

Hoping for justice, but don't expect anything from fascistic rw FL judges - especially the ones appointed by Scott - the worst of the worst.

[Polybius]

17. Republicans vote in person and on Election Day anyway

It won't effect them.

[lark]

22. Wrong, this is FL we are talking about.

FL repugs vote by mail to a much greater degree than Dems, always have and still do. There are a lot of very elderly people here and Assisted Living and Nursing Homes are everywhere and these old folks mostly are Repug. and all vote by mail. Military is also mostly repug and the people stationed overseas have to vote by mail. They are hurting their own constituencies in the rush to disenfranchise working folks.

Sure hope that law gets overturned because all citizens should have an opportunity to vote - every single one of us.

[SarasotaDem]

24. You are right

I am 70 Born and raised here and many republicans over 65 vote by mail
He might have screwed himself this time.

[lark]

25. I'm praying that's true or if not that somehow the lawsuits will win.

Don't really expect anything good from rw packed courts, though. Really pisses me off that Mancin is stopping Dems from righting the listing ship.

[JohnSJ]

2. It would be really a kick if this backfired on DeSantis, and made it more difficult for his voters

to vote, and they lost

[Lovie777]

5. I know this is a scenario is from a movie . ..

"Jurassic Park" . . . .

At the end, scientists tried to keep the dinosaurs from reproducing and I think they were all male, but nature and survival of the dinosaurs kicked in and defied the odds.

Same here ..

[mcar]

7. Let the lawsuits begin!

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I know you are down there and feel for you

And here in PA they are trying to do the same as well but the only thing that might hold us steady at this point is that our governor is a (D) and the State Supreme Court is majority (D) (5 - 2), so any nonsense coming out of the GOP-controlled State Assembly can be vetoed (and they don't have enough to override).

[mcar]

11. Thanks

Governance in this state just gets worse and worse.

PA is my home state - born in Harrisburg, raised in Scranton. I'm always happy when the Keystone State comes through!

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I think I've been to Harrisburg twice (work-related)

and have driven past Scranton on the way to somewhere upstate.

We were glad when the state came through in 2020. I still believe that 2016 was an aberration.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. All of these efforts to hamstring democratic voters are going to come back against republican

voters too. Perhaps in some cases, even more so. A lot of the elderly do vote by mail and there are loads of elderly republican voters.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. So which FL corporations will be subject to boycott?

Start with Orange juice...

[AZLD4Candidate]

15. It always bothers me when people say "rule of law" and "the law is the law"

Law making has always been abused by those who scream the loudest to follow it.

Look at laws we have had in this country:

Laws preventing women from voting
Laws enabling slavery
Slave codes to control the conduct of a slave
Fugitive Slave Law
Black Codes
Poll Tax
Jim Crow laws
Separate but equal laws
Chinese Exclusion Act
Asia Act - expanding the Chinese Exclusion Act to all Asians in 1924
Redlining Codes
Anti-miscegenation laws that would make my marriage illegal in 37 states before 1967
Anti-sodomy laws designed to make homosexual acts illegal
Anti Right to Die laws (dogs can be given a painless, merciful death, but humans need to suffer right to the end)
Pro-hanger for abortion laws
Outlawing obscenity laws (as Lenny Bruce said, if you outlaw the "F" word, you outlaw the ability to say "F the Government."
Civil Forfeiture laws
Qualified Immunity laws
Removal of civil rights laws for felons
Credit rating applying to car insurance premiums laws
USA PATRIOT Act (that was supposed to be temporary)

And now all these voting restriction laws, that are a problem looking for a solution because the Republicans LOST in the election.

[BobTheSubgenius]

16. The public would have been FINE with the way American elections work.

If only you had just kept your lying, partisan, deluded mouths shut!!!

F_ me, are these people transparent!!! How can people be falling for it.

[Jon King]

19. We need to treat him as Trump #2

This guy is full bore positioning to be the Repug nominee. He is a sick, sick man who we have to fight just as much as we did Trump.

https://news.yahoo.com/editorial-strongman-dark-blue-suit-080000508.html

[BlueWavePsych]

20. Florida Republicans reportedly fear they miscalculated on new voting restrictions

Some Florida Republicans are reportedly growing concerned that a new bill curbing the use of mail-in voting could end up backfiring on the party.

After Florida's state legislature recently passed a bill to place new restrictions on mail ballots, some Republicans in the state are "reacting with alarm," The Washington Post reports. After all, the bill will be "curtailing a practice that millions of state Republicans use," the Post writes, and Republicans are worried their "political fortunes are in peril" as a result.

The bill, for example, requires that voters reapply for mail ballots each two-year cycle, whereas the current law requires them to reapply every four years, and it also restricts the use of drop boxes, the report notes. The state legislature moved to enact the changes following the 2020 presidential election, during which former President Donald Trump attacked the use of mail-in voting.

But almost 35 percent of GOP voters in Florida cast their ballots by mail in 2020, and Republicans fear the bill will "further undercut the party's ability to encourage mail voting," the Post writes.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/florida-republicans-reportedly-fear-miscalculated-162333789.html

See also ... Now Florida Republicans worry their new voting restrictions may backfire and hurt GOP turnout

[BumRushDaShow]

21. IOW

Cutting off one's nose to spite their face.