Fixing Florida’s Election Law
In response to problems with Florida’s election law [Democrats won a state-wide office, and the Presidential contest in the state] the Republicans have proposed a complete new law.
The Miami Herald reports on the new bill: Changes at voting polls rile up critics
The 81-page bill was debated for just six minutes before it passed on a 10-5 party-line vote at a one-hour meeting at 8 a.m. of the House Economic Development Council. No other committee is slated to review the bill, so there’s no chance for additional public testimony in the two weeks left in the session.
Similarly, the Senate version (SB 956) was heard for the first time Thursday, passing the Ethics and Elections Committee 5-3 over Democratic objections.
On Friday, Republican Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Green Cove Springs suggested restricting debate to six minutes. When the committee chairman, Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, allowed two people to make brief statements, Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Brooksville, insisted that no more testimony be allowed.
That’s right, a complete re-write of the election law with 6 minutes of public comment, and straight party-line votes, but the tea parties were about what the Federal government is doing. The state of Florida has strong open government laws … well, except for the legislature which exempted itself from the intrusions.
3 comments
a modest proposal: affirmative action for elected officials, where the % republicans in the state legislature must be equal to or less than the % registered republicans in the population.
i tried everything i could think of to get out of taking [required] speech class in junior high school, but didn’t succeed. however, once there, i turned to be pretty darn good at impromptu, especially the ‘other’ styles. still, that’s a travesty.
hipparchia´s last blog post..Hillary Clinton’s 1995 speech on women’s rights
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They are doing their best to ensure that only “right thinking voters” are allowed to participate, and they don’t much care if they are from the state or not, as long as their wallets are open to the “right thinking elected officials”.