TALLAHASSEE—It was not a letter any governor likes to receive—especially the one from Florida, Rick Scott. United States Attorney General Eric Holder wrote to crack the ruler across Scott’s knuckles before promising, “We will not hesitate to use all tools and legal authorities at our disposal to fight against racial discrimination, to stand against disenfranchisement, and to safeguard the right of every eligible American to cast a ballot.”
Apparently, Governor Scott’s past efforts to limit access to polling places and ultimately change the course of the election has been uncovered just in time to set the tone for the upcoming November elections.
“I am deeply disturbed that during your tenure, your state has repeatedly added barriers to voting and restricted access to the polls.” More than just disturbed, Holder reminded Scott of the outcome of the suit Florida vs. United States. Overruling Florida laws, the court told Scott that the law threatened “a dramatic reduction in the form of voting that is disproportionately used by African-Americans” that would have made it “materially more difficult for some minority voters to cast a ballot under the benchmark law…”
And before the word “rigging” can form in your minds, Holder also brought up an article that ran in January 2013 in the Orlando Sentinel. That report found that “at least 201,000 voters did not cast ballots on Election Day 2012 because they were discouraged by long lines at the polling places.”
As if these charges were not damaging enough, Holder rubbed salt by writing, “I have grave concerns that there remains a troubling pattern in your state of measures that make it more difficult, not easier, for Floridians to vote. For example,” Holder continued, “as part of the same 2011 law, the state imposed rules on organizations that helped register individuals to vote that were, in the words of the Federal court, “’harsh,’ ‘impractical,’ ‘burdensome,’ and ‘unworkable’.”
Holder upped the stakes with “more recently, the federal courts have concluded that in 2012, Florida violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) by conducting a systematic program to purge voters from its voter registration rolls within the 90-day quiet period before an election for federal office. In doing so, Florida used inaccurate and unreliable voter verification procedures that harmed and confused voters.”
Who knew that “Florida is one of just eleven states that continue to restrict voting rights even after a person has ser ed his or her sentence and is no longer on probation or parole=; and in 2011, you made it more difficult for individuals who have served their sentences to regain the right to vote by eliminating automatic restoration of rights for non-violent felons and requiring a five-year waiting period before felons convicted of non-violent crimes can apply to have their rights restored.
“The justification for denying citizens’ voting right for life, especially after they have completed their sentence and made amends, are unpersuasive. On the contrary, there is evidence to suggest that offenders whose voting rights are restored are significantly less likely to return to the criminal justice system,” Holder suggested.
Then there was the 2013 directive from then-Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that proclaimed that absentee ballots had to be returned to supervisors’ offices. “Many has expressed concern that this directive will significantly reduce the number of places to return an absentee ballot and will have a negative impact on citizens whose jobs, access to transportation, or addresses make it difficult to return ballots to supervisors’ offices which, especially in large counties, may be miles away.”
The official Scott response is that the letter was politics as usual and made to favor likely opponent Charlie Crist. No acknowledgement that the facts were accurate. No apology for denying someone the opportunity to vote. Governor Scott is too busy suing Republican circuit court judges who dared to agree that same-sex marriage is a right. Florida deserves better.
