Is the Legislature to blame for long early voting lines? (You betcha, Florida)

[seafan]

Is the Legislature to blame for long early voting lines?

BY CHARLES RABIN, LARRY LEBOWITZ AND MICHAEL VASQUEZ
October 22, 2008

Saying early voting cost too much money with rules that weren't uniform, Republican legislators led a charge three years ago to set new statewide standards limiting the number of polling sites and their hours of operation.

Those revamped rules trimmed early voting from 12 hours per workday to eight.

During the first presidential election since Gov. Jeb Bush signed the bill in 2005, the new law's impact can be seen throughout South Florida: exhausting lines at polling sites in Miami-Dade and Broward that led voters to miss work, senior citizens to beg for chairs and voting advocates to question whether some are being disenfranchised.
From Miami City Hall to the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, voters on Monday and Tuesday -- the first two days of early voting -- sweated out waits of two to five hours. Broward reported record turnout for early voting, which ends Nov. 2.

Now, the debate over those achingly long lines has turned political. Some Democratic leaders contend the bill intentionally slowed down a process that has historically benefited the party.
''They were using their power, their majority, to make it harder for people to vote, to gain a political advantage,'' said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. ``It was horrible.'' ..... House Bill 1567 took effect during the 2006 election cycle. Before its passage, early voting centers could remain open for up to 12 hours on weekdays, and for a total of eight hours over the weekend.

Today, early voting sites are limited to eight hours on weekdays and a total of eight aggregate hours on weekends. Local governments are now limited to using libraries, city halls and election headquarters as polling sites. ..... In Miami-Dade, where early voting booths open at 7 a.m., the centers stop taking voters at 3 -- well before most people get off work. Broward's early voting precincts run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week. ..... At the North Miami branch library on Monday, the crowd was filled with many Haitian immigrants or first-generation Americans of Haitian descent voting for the first time.
James Gardner, a community college supervisor from North Miami, tried to vote there Monday but left.
''I thought it might take me an hour. It's already been 2 ½,'' he said.
Though the library stopped letting people enter the line at 3 p.m., some didn't reach a voting machine for another five hours, said elections office clerk Gerard Perez. ''We basically had a 13-hour day,'' he said.

Ten minutes before polls opened at the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, a line stretched 150 strong -- and continued to grow.

.....

Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola said that for the past three years he has futilely sent legislative packages to Tallahassee seeking more control over the local early process. He is now required to provide a list of polling sites to the state 30 days before Election Day, but says counties need the flexibility to hold early voting outside traditional government buildings.
''Why overwhelm a library when you have a large regional park next door?'' Sola asked. ``We had a lot more flexibility before.''
Sola said plenty of machines are in storage that will be used on Election Day when the county opens 765 precincts -- but he is limited in their use now because the size of the sites available.

.....

Sounds like Ohio in 2004... restricting numbers of machines in minority areas, decreasing numbers of polling places...


Yet another parting gift from Jeb Bush and his Republican Legislature in 2006.



These people shame our nation, by their deceit, arrogance and thievery.


They live to undermine our democracy.


They belong in prison.

[madfloridian]

1. Good post, and don't forget....there is NO manual recount of all ballots in Florida.

Despite all the promises...no manual recount in close elections in Florida.

"There is not such a thing as a manual recount in Florida," said Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning. "It is very dangerous to tell candidates that, yes, the law has a section that says 'manual recount' but we're not going to look at those ballots."

The reason: Despite pleas from Browning, lawmakers have not authorized a full manual recount of all ballots in close elections.

Instead, canvassing boards in each of Florida's 67 counties will only manually count the ballots that were not tabulated by machines that read marked-in bubbles or connected lines."

[seafan]

2. This one ruling alone was more than enough to expose these criminals.

I am so anticipating removing these bastard Republicans from our state legislature, our Governor's mansion, our state *regulatory* agencies, especially water management and environmental protection, amid all the others.

These people have so callously damaged this state, its people and resources, all in the name of unbridled, nasty greed.



I am so sick of all of these people, with Jeb Bush at the top of the despised list. Ah, Jeb, he finally was king of something.

[madfloridian]

3. You do a good job of exposing them in your journals. Keep up the good work.

:hi:

[seafan]

4. Thanks, madfloridian. Back atcha. Thirteen. More. Days.

:patriot:

[madfloridian]

5. And a kick for this.