Florida's Governor Signs Assault on Democracy Into Law

This is an article that I discovered eariler today about what Florida's new governor is doing to apparently stifle voter fraud.

Source Saint Petersburg Times

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law on Thursday pernicious election changes designed to benefit Republicans and suppress voting by minorities, college students and low-wage workers.

How exactly would this suppress voting by these minorities ?

By shortening early voting from two weeks to eight days, the new law makes it harder for low-income working people who don't have flexible hours to vote. And early voting is barred three days before Election Day, ensuring that the weekend before the election, when casual voters are most engaged and most able to vote, there will be no opportunity.

I am not so sure of the connection between being a Democrat, and a low-wage worker, but it seems that the lower, to middle class population will intentionally be discouraged from casting their votes. In the past, legislation has had a tendency to favor the rich, and hinder the middle class. It does not make sense that the majority of the people affected by these enacted laws are given less of an opportunity to voice their desire through a system which was setup originally to do just that.

But it gets even better...

In another craven move by Republicans, voters who change their residences a lot such as renters, college students and the poor will now to be handed provisional ballots at the polls, which may or may not be counted.

Once again titles aside, whatever you are, you have a right as a citizen of the United States to cast your voice in a manner consistent with it's intended usage to elect public (now private, really) officials to do their best to solve the problems we face daily, and to create a better environment for the benefit of everyone, and not just people who have more money than others.

Governor Scott, has made some real progress so far, and I am afraid there is a lot more to come.

reply to post by Kevinquisitor

i wonder if this has a name in political circles. maybe 'streamlining', perhaps. with thoughts of possible rigged voting machines to boot, i wonder how many will stay at home and not bother, thinking it is already a done deal. or am i way out of the ball park?
f

reply to post by Kevinquisitor


This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And no I'm not talking about the law.. I'm talking about the Liberal attack on the law.

A "poor" person can't manage to vote within 8 days?

Please.

Do blacks and Hispanics have a problem getting to the polls in 8 days?

Edit: Where I was born we had one day to vote.

reply to post by Rockpuck


Regardless of the slant of the article, why is it necessary to have this law in the first place? It looks like another chip off the block of democracy to me. You would think that with as much weight as voting holds, it would be a little more convenient for "casual voters" to cast their votes. It just does not make any sense.

All the governor has to do is just allow people who have a high school diploma or equivalent to vote.
We are the dumbass voting state that has a million excuses when the liberal doesn't win, hanging chads!!
Here in my lovely Florida town of Jacksonville, we have buses that bus the black racists or the racist go door to door in the poverty black community having the uneducated fill out the absent ballots to vote. It wouldn't be so bad if they knew the issues and voted for the right person, but there only goal is to vote black and that is it.
Thank God our new mayor seems he will be ok and yes he is black and got the racist votes but he deserved to win because he would do the best job.
dumbarse people thinking they are saved now because he going to give them free money or something. Yea right!

Rick "the Dick" Scott has been pushing for big changes in Florida. For one thing he wants to drug test welfare recipients.
That issue aside his wife owns Solantic, (because he signed it over to her) a chain walk-in clinic, that also specializes in drug testing.

Originally posted by IndieA
Rick "the Dick" Scott has been pushing for big changes in Florida. For one thing he wants to drug test welfare recipients.
That issue aside his wife owns Solantic, (because he signed it over to her) a chain walk-in clinic, that also specializes in drug testing.

Good!! Anyone receiving government aid SHOULD be drug tested. By the way, he sold his family shares of Solantic on April 29th to a private equity firm.

reply to post by Kevinquisitor


This story is being circulated heavily by the Democrats. It is entirely B.S.!

All this bill does is make voter fraud more difficult. Anybody that wants to vote, just has to make sure they are registered, with the proper address, a month or two before the elections. If they change addresses they can do what I have done in the past, and drive to their other voting precinct.

There is still early voting, but it isn't for such a long period of time.

The only way this benefits one party over another, is if one party was better at creating fraudulent voters than the other. In my opinion, if Democrats feel this hurts their chances, then they are admitting they can't win without fraud.

Originally posted by IndieA
Rick "the Dick" Scott has been pushing for big changes in Florida. For one thing he wants to drug test welfare recipients.
That issue aside his wife owns Solantic, (because he signed it over to her) a chain walk-in clinic, that also specializes in drug testing.

Gov. Scott is already filthy rich, the State already has provisional drug testing for state employees, but our legal departments won't let us use it. I have had employees obviously baked out of their minds, and I was not allowed to randomly drug test them. All state employees sign an agreement that they are subject to pre-employment drug testing, but we don't do it.

What is the problem with testing welfare recipients and state employees? Some company is going to make money from it. His company or some other company, doesn't matter to me, the end result is the same! Better employees and less welfare recipients. Win-Win!

Drug testing discriminates against marijuana users, who are no more a threat to the work force than alcoholics.
This is because marijuana can stay in the system for up to 30 days while most hard drugs are no longer detectable after a couple of days. It's unfair to the "peaceful pothead".

Good!! Anyone receiving government aid SHOULD be drug tested. By the way, he sold his family shares of Solantic on April 29th to a private equity firm.

I bet it's his wife's private equity firm.

Originally posted by IndieA
Drug testing disciminates against marijauna users who are no more a threat to the work force than alcoholics.
This is because marijuana can stay in the system for up to 30 days while most hard drugs are no longer detectable after a couple of days. It's unfair to the "peaceful pothead".

Good!! Anyone receiving government aid SHOULD be drug tested. By the way, he sold his family shares of Solantic on April 29th to a private equity firm.

I bet it's his wife's private equity firm.

No it discriminates against people who live off the system and spend their money or gov paid for meds to buy drugs..............

If you have money to buy your dope, you got money to save to get your arse off the sytem..........full stop

Thanks for posting this, and I don't mean to be harsh to the OP personally, but it comes up often and I feel it's an important point: There is no difference between the "middle class" and what some people erroneously call the "lower" class. The term "lower class" only exists in this sense because enough confused people have used it for long enough, but the more correct term is "working class". And it's a myth that the "middle class" is not also "working class". Absolutely everyone who actually works for a living, whether in a coal mine or an office, is working class, and everyone else -- that is, the very very small percent who own the vast majority of everything -- is "ruling class".

This is important because the false, artificially imposed lines of division between people who are actually all in the same boat and have a common enemy have historically been used to prevent them from recognizing that fact and acting upon it.

One day, a person who wears a pressed suit to work and a person who wears greasy overalls to work will meet in the street, and understand that they have always had more in common with each other than with the ultra-elites exploiting both of them for profit. And on that day, the revolution will begin.

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask

No it discriminates against people who live off the system and spend their money or gov paid for meds to buy drugs..............

I was speaking about drug testing alone. The welfare issue is separate. I don't like people buying drugs with government money as much as the next guy but I also don't like drug test because they discriminate against cannabis users.

reply to post by IndieA


How can you say they descriminate against a single user? Its a drug test , its a panel? Its not the organizations fault or anyone elses fault but the user that Marijuana stays in the system longer then most drugs......

LOL that argument has no merit , its not targeted any more than any other drug in the testing panel......

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask


Your right it is no one's fault. I just think it's messed up that hard drug users can much more easily go undetected. For example someone can use a hard drug on a Friday night and test clean on a Monday morning but if the person smokes some pot on a Friday night he will very likely test positive Monday morning. I think this is unfair especially since pot is less harmful than alcohol.

Another reason I dislike drug test is because they are an invasion of privacy.

Now I understand that can change if the person being tested wants something like government assistance or a job, then it seems reasonable for the offering party to ask for the test and the person being tested to live up to certain standards.

Just confirming that libs think minorites are too stupid to function in a normal word and need to be taken care of. Real insulting if you ask me.

One day, a person who wears a pressed suit to work and a person who wears greasy overalls to work will meet in the street, and understand that they have always had more in common with each other than with the ultra-elites exploiting both of them for profit. And on that day, the revolution will begin.

reply to post by sepermeru


So true. The so called middle class are under attack more than they know.

I heard on the news today that people borrowing on their IRA's was way up. That was this afternoon.

This evening I see that the Senate wants to pass a bill to limit borrowing on 401K's
money.msn.com...

People are borrowing the money because they need to and the government is like "not so fast".

There are so many other examples of the big fish eating the little ones but I will try to shut up for now.

This is really no big deal. As a matter of fact it is a moot point. You should start by finding the answer to the most relevant question, which is....why do you think they call it a "POLL"? Then, maybe you should learn the difference between what a poll really is in comparison to a vote.

reply to post by IndieA


#1 mj is still illegal for now.

#2. I know people that have smoked the morning of their drug test and still passed. It is more of an intelligence test than a drug test. If u can't figure out how pass it, then u don't deserve to get the job.

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask

Originally posted by IndieA
Drug testing disciminates against marijauna users who are no more a threat to the work force than alcoholics.
This is because marijuana can stay in the system for up to 30 days while most hard drugs are no longer detectable after a couple of days. It's unfair to the "peaceful pothead".

Good!! Anyone receiving government aid SHOULD be drug tested. By the way, he sold his family shares of Solantic on April 29th to a private equity firm.

I bet it's his wife's private equity firm.

No it discriminates against people who live off the system and spend their money or gov paid for meds to buy drugs..............

If you have money to buy your dope, you got money to save to get your arse off the sytem..........full stop

edit on 20-5-2011 by ManBehindTheMask because: (no reason given)

So what if the "dope" user is growing their own for free? I think you are just biased towards people using a harmless plant that has been used for thousands of years (I'm certain you are biased, since you used the word "dope" - likening marijuana to heroin or coc aine, you know, dope).

This is just another useless law by Scott, up there with the "Corporate tax break" law that created a staggering 250 or so jobs (because a single company decided to move it's headquarters to Tallahassee).

He has done wonders for our unemployment rate, it's only 10.4%!

When will people realize that voting for "lower taxes" means lower taxes for the rich and the rich business owners, and is actually against their own self-interest.