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[LooseCannon]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

[BballTim]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

[nickagneta]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

What I am saying is that former governors and state lawmakers set up early voting to assist ALL voters regardless of political party. The Governor and lawmakers that are there now changed the laws to shorten the time period because they saw it was in their party's best interest. Obviously the current Republican governor and people in the state government is a bit more interested in helping his party than past governors and assemblies of state representatives.

Is that really so difficult to understand or are you now going to ask another ridiculous question? I am pretty sure everyone else caught the meaning of what was said in previous posts quite clearly.

[BballTim]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

  The problem is the group that benefits the most from reforms that make voting easier is fraudulent voters.

[BballTim]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

What I am saying is that former governors and state lawmakers set up early voting to assist ALL voters regardless of political party. The Governor and lawmakers that are there now changed the laws to shorten the time period because they saw it was in their party's best interest. Obviously the current Republican governor and people in the state government is a bit more interested in helping his party than past governors and assemblies of state representatives.

  Ok, so the republicans implemented this law with the knowledge that the law would hurt their party's chances in future elections, but they were subsequently replaced by "different" republicans who are changing the law to suppress votes? Wouldn't some of the legislature in Florida now be the same people who implemented the law?

Is that really so difficult to understand or are you now going to ask another ridiculous question? I am pretty sure everyone else caught the meaning of what was said in previous posts quite clearly.

  I was just curious about whether you had any evidence beyond "the same party that *implemented* the law modified it, so clearly something nefarious happened".

[thirstyboots18]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

What I am saying is that former governors and state lawmakers set up early voting to assist ALL voters regardless of political party. The Governor and lawmakers that are there now changed the laws to shorten the time period because they saw it was in their party's best interest. Obviously the current Republican governor and people in the state government is a bit more interested in helping his party than past governors and assemblies of state representatives.

Is that really so difficult to understand or are you now going to ask another ridiculous question? I am pretty sure everyone else caught the meaning of what was said in previous posts quite clearly.

I'm sorry, Nick...this doesn't hold water with me.  According to reports, Democrats vote early and by absentee ballot...and the Republicans are starting to vote now.  Why would a Republican governor shut down voting just when the republicans are paying attention and the Dems have already voted?   Judging by the quagmires in various states, stupidity and criminality are bipartisan.0, and sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.

[LooseCannon]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

  The problem is the group that benefits the most from reforms that make voting easier is fraudulent voters.

Automatically registering everyone to vote and creating a government database with photos that poll workers can use to confirm IDs would make voting easier without benefiting fraudulent voters.

[D Dub]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

  The problem is the group that benefits the most from reforms that make voting easier is fraudulent voters.

I'm pretty confident there are many, many more adult Americans who simply don't have drivers licenses, than crooks who've created Fake ID's to vote with.

There's a whole series of events compiling now
-- between this generation's various civil rights isses, the voter ID push, the AZ immigration laws, and the 47% victim thing --
that's revealing an ugly layer of distrust & contempt for one's neighbor. 

[BballTim]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

  The problem is the group that benefits the most from reforms that make voting easier is fraudulent voters.

Automatically registering everyone to vote and creating a government database with photos that poll workers can use to confirm IDs would make voting easier without benefiting fraudulent voters.

  Automatically registering everyone to vote will probably add a lot of fraud to the system.

[LooseCannon]

  Automatically registering everyone to vote will probably add a lot of fraud to the system.

It almost certainly won't.

[BballTim]

Problem is, anytime reports of something sketchy comes up it's in favor of one party or the other, so it becomes a partisan issue by default.

The problem is that one party clearly benefits and the other is clearly hurt by any reforms that make voting easier and increase turnout.

  The problem is the group that benefits the most from reforms that make voting easier is fraudulent voters.

I'm pretty confident there are many, many more adult Americans who simply don't have drivers licenses, than crooks who've created Fake ID's to vote with.

  So since the crooks don't have fake IDs, they'd benefit the most from fewer restrictions on voting.

[BballTim]

  Automatically registering everyone to vote will probably add a lot of fraud to the system.

It almost certainly won't.

  Yes, because the one thing we *need* is the names of many more people with no intention of voting in the system.

[Cman]

Reports  of a GOP-oriented group engaged in money laundering in California elections:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/11/californias-thhour-million-campaign-finance-uproar-148477.html

[nickagneta]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

What I am saying is that former governors and state lawmakers set up early voting to assist ALL voters regardless of political party. The Governor and lawmakers that are there now changed the laws to shorten the time period because they saw it was in their party's best interest. Obviously the current Republican governor and people in the state government is a bit more interested in helping his party than past governors and assemblies of state representatives.

Is that really so difficult to understand or are you now going to ask another ridiculous question? I am pretty sure everyone else caught the meaning of what was said in previous posts quite clearly.

I'm sorry, Nick...this doesn't hold water with me.  According to reports, Democrats vote early and by absentee ballot...and the Republicans are starting to vote now.  Why would a Republican governor shut down voting just when the republicans are paying attention and the Dems have already voted?   Judging by the quagmires in various states, stupidity and criminality are bipartisan.0, and sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.

TB, the law was changed last summer(2011) and went through a lot of judicial review before being approved. It was aimed specifically at reducing the amount of time blacks had to vote in this election.

The last Presidential election changed everything in Florida due to Obama's ability to get out the black early vote. prior to that, in Florida it was predominantly Republicans that voted early in Florida. But in 2008, 54% of the people who voted early were black and the larger majority of total early votes were Democrat.

Seeing this the current governor and lawmakers changed the early voting laws and specifically eliminated early voting on the Sunday before the election because black pastors in black congregations across the state organized a "souls to the Polls" movement and got a large contingent of black voters to leave Sunday mass and immediately go to an early voting area and vote.

This is the reason why this governor has rolled back early voting this year whereas others have done what they can make voting easier

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/24/florida-early-voting-cuts-survive/

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/us-justice-department-okays-florida-early-voting-plan-for-five-counties/1249884

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-19/florida-cutbacks-in-early-voting-hours-face-challenge

[BballTim]

Maybe voters were worried that if they voted absentee their votes wouldn't be counted considering what has happened in Florida previously. In fact, those who voted on Election Day in Florida also had doubts if their votes were actually counted to the correct candidate.

If you decide, as a state, to offer early voting, then you must properly staff the voting stations. The previous governors were able to do that properly so why can't the current governor handle that? It's a poor excuse to exclude voters. I wonder who was behind the letters that some registered voters received in Florida about a month ago telling them that they were not registered (when indeed they were) and that if they went to vote they would be arrested. Stuff like this in our country is disgusting.

  Are you saying there weren't lines for early voting in 2004 or 2008?

They had more days to vote. The laws were recently changed to shorten the amount of time people had to early vote because studies showed that the party that is not in power in Florida were voting early in larger numbers than the party that is in power.

  So are you saying that republicans just took control of the govt down there, or that early voting just began to favor democrats?

What I am saying is that former governors and state lawmakers set up early voting to assist ALL voters regardless of political party. The Governor and lawmakers that are there now changed the laws to shorten the time period because they saw it was in their party's best interest. Obviously the current Republican governor and people in the state government is a bit more interested in helping his party than past governors and assemblies of state representatives.

Is that really so difficult to understand or are you now going to ask another ridiculous question? I am pretty sure everyone else caught the meaning of what was said in previous posts quite clearly.

I'm sorry, Nick...this doesn't hold water with me.  According to reports, Democrats vote early and by absentee ballot...and the Republicans are starting to vote now.  Why would a Republican governor shut down voting just when the republicans are paying attention and the Dems have already voted?   Judging by the quagmires in various states, stupidity and criminality are bipartisan.0, and sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.

TB, the law was changed last summer(2011) and went through a lot of judicial review before being approved. It was aimed specifically at reducing the amount of time blacks had to vote in this election.

  Haha. In a related story, the democrats that made that claim demanded to know when the republicans in the legislature stopped beating their wives.