Image: VeracityStew.com / Cartoon: Flickr/DonkeyHotey
Florida finds itself in the news again regarding voters and registration, but this time the dissatisfaction is arising from within the state, rather than from outside as was the case in the Gore/Bush election of 2000. Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch is claiming Republican Governor Rick Scott is actively attempting to suppress voter turnout by removing ?180,000?citizens from the state?s registration rolls. Deutch?s concerns stem from the fact the list of ineligible voters is incorrect, and several false removals have allegedly occurred.
Critics of the efforts to clean voter rolls acknowledge that?s it is not as much an issue of voter fraud in Florida, as it is voter disenfranchisement. In the months following the disastrous 2000 Presidential Election and Florida?s infamous role in anointing George Bush as president, The Palm Beach Post did an investigation looking at voters purged prior to that election. There were some interesting facts that emerged as the investigation progressed. Unfortunately, they were a bit predictable, too.
While no one is making the overt claim that the purpose in purging voter rolls is discriminatory, it?s hard to ignore the results of that purge. After a Miami mayoral race was discovered to have had dead people voting, a major contract was awarded to a company to weed out those who were registered but ineligible to vote for whatever reason.? What the 2000 Presidential election highlighted was that the purges, in many instances, were incorrect. A Palm Beach Post computer analysis found approximately 1,100 eligible voters who had been incorrectly denied the opportunity to vote. Given that George W. Bush won Florida, and therefore the election over Al Gore, those inaccuracies very well could have cost Gore the election in during the contentious ballot re-count and investigation of hanging chads.
Even more stunning was the revelation that while African-Americans only comprise 11% of Florida voters, an unprecedented 88% of those expunged from the voter rolls were African-American. Does this mean anything when the current governor is making efforts at completing yet another purge from the voter rolls? What do they stand to gain by disenfranchising voters?
What we?re seeing is a typical difference between the two primary political parties. Democrats seek to open the opportunity to register and vote to anyone and everyone who IS eligible to vote. Republicans seek to disenfranchise voters, and limit opportunity through methods such as voter roll purges and redistricting. Is there a possibility that Gov. Scott?s efforts to clear voter rolls are not based on good democratic principles, and is instead another thinly veiled attempt to sway the upcoming presidential election?
As a Republican, Rick Scott has fallen out of favor with his party, perceived as not Republican enough, or a RINO (Republican In Name Only). By capitulating to typical Republican warfare tactics, he may be seeking to ingratiate himself with his own party again. He knows Florida will be a battleground state one more time, and by helping the party machine in advance he?s playing the political game, with little regard for the damage to the principle of democracy.
Congressman Deutch is concerned about the potential for errors, as the state has already experienced. For those inaccurately denied their chance to cast a vote in the 2000, the chance of being singled out again is a real possibility. What Deutch and in all likelihood the rest of the Florida delegation should be supporting is cleaning up the registered voters in an accurate and appropriate manner. No one is arguing that voters shouldn?t be registered per Florida?s laws, but when the state has a history of denying eligible voters the chance to vote, it?s an easy assumption to make that mischief may be afoot. For Rick Scott and Florida?s sake, let?s hope there?s not.
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