FL - The "We Don't Want Everyone to Vote" State

It’s amazing to me how Florida can have so much potential voter fraud – over and over and over and over and over again – year after year after year after year after year after year

Doesn’t anyone other than me think this is just too effing hokey to even have a thread of substance to it anymore.

Therefore – I anoint Florida

 – The ALEC state of “You don’t have the right to vote”.

From Think Progress this morning

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Congressman Demands Gov. Rick Scott ‘Immediately Suspend’ Voter Purge

By Judd Legum and Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on May 23, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Florida Congressman Ted Deutch (D) told ThinkProgress today that Gov. Rick Scott was engaging in a “blatant attempt to supress voter turnout.” Scott is currently involved in a massive effort to purge up to 180,000 from the voting rolls. The list, purportedly of non-citizens, has proven unreliable. Earlier this week, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport.

History repeating itself

And you need to remember this from 2004:

In Florida some 50,000 voters were purged in 2004 (in addition to the many purged in 2000), many of them African-American, who still were unable to vote by 2006. In various states and counties the subterranean war against electoral democracy continues.

And this from 2000

The Florida Secretary of State’sOffice hired a private firm known as Database Technologies, Inc. (now ChoicePoint Corporation) to identify convicted felons and remove them from Florida’s voting rolls. Prior to the election, 94,000 voters were removed (Kelly, 2002).

As The Nation magazine reported, "immediately after the November 7, 2000 election, minority voters who had never committed crimes complained of having had their names removed from voting rolls in a purge of ‘ex-felons,’ of being denied translation services required by law, … and of harassment by poll workers and law-enforcement officials." The list of voters denied the right to vote was overwhelmingly Democratic and half were minorities (Kelly, 2002).

African-Americans made up 88 percent of the voters removed from the rolls in the purge that preceeded the 2000 election, even though they account for only about 11 percent of Florida voters. In Florida, 93 percent of black voters cast a ballot for Al Gore.

UPDATE
From Think Progress May 25, 2012

Maureen Russo was born in Akron, Ohio. For the last 40 years she’s operated a dog boarding and grooming business — Bobbi’s World Kennels — with her husband in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Maureen is 60 years old and has been a registered voter in the state for the last four decades. She regularly votes at the church around the corner from her home.

Two weeks ago she received a letter from the State of Florida informing her that they had received information that she was not born in this country and, therefore, was ineligible to vote.

snip

It is unclear what legitimate purpose Gov. Scott has to move forward with the voting purge in the face of multiple documented errors. Florida has no history of mass voter fraud. It does have a history, however, of mass voter disenfranchisement. By one estimate, 7000 Florida voters were wrongfully removed from the voter rolls for the 2000 presidential election — 13 times George W. Bush’s margin of victory in that state after the Supreme Court halted the post-election recount.

UPDATE - May 29, 2012
From Think Progress

Bill Internicola is a 91-year-old, Brooklyn-born, World War II veteran. He fought in the Battle of the Buldge and received the Bronze Star for bravery. He’s voted in Florida for 14 years and never had a problem.

Three weeks ago, Bill received a letter from Broward County Florida stating “[Y]ou are not a U.S. Citizen” and therefore, ineligible to vote.

VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group, weighs in:

 “When someone who put their life on the line to protect the right to vote from fascists and empires is denied the right to vote, and is purged from voting rolls, there is something horribly, horribly wrong. Anyone who would stand behind an action that threatens the right to vote of a WWII vet is someone I would call un-American,” said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org

You gotta read the whole thing.. on all those articles - really you do.

Florida – THE ALEC – You don’t have a right to vote state.
Florida - The "We Don't Want Everyone to Vote" State 
Florida - The Paul Weyrich State (Founder of ALEC)

Coming to a state near you soon.

Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube’s privacy statement on their website and Google’s privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU’s privacy statement, click here.