The only evidence you need for voter suppression - Florida

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-only-evidence-you-need-that-the-florida-gop-was-suppressing-voters-long-lines/#.ULTF_JHCoPE.twitter



For anyone who spent hours waiting in line to vote in Florida on November 6, the blockbuster report “Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law” in Monday’s Palm Beach Post might have them saying “duh.”

Anyone who looked at what happened in Florida during this election can see Republicans, led by Governor Rick Scott, intentionally made it more difficult to vote in order to prevent minorities and other likely Democrats from reaching the polls. Thus voters spent up to nine hours in line waiting to cast their ballots — an injustice that can only be properly labeled as a modern-day poll tax.

Still the Post‘s exposé is important because it details the process that led to the intolerable waits that voters had to endure in order to vote, with testimony from two former, now estranged leaders of Florida’s Republican Party and two Republican consultants.

It all began in 2008. Facing long lines for 14 days of early voting, Governor Charlie Crist issued an executive order extending early voting hours. He did this despite signs it would hurt his own party.

Republican consultant Wayne Bertsch said that GOP identified early voting as a weakness for Republicans. “In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines,” Bertsch told the Post.

more at link