Florida Governor Rick Scott Already Rigging 2012 Election

[Greenday]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...ote/?mobile=nc

Scott is having his people calling Florida citizens up to tell them they aren't allowed to vote in the upcoming election. He is using out of date information that is very prone to error.

In Miami-Dade County, 1,638 people were told they were ineligible to vote because they aren't US citizens. 359 of those people already have sent in their information to show that they are. The county has already told the state administration that they are wrong about another 26 of them. That's already 23.5% that they are wrong about and odds are that number is much higher.

The vast majority of those being told they can't vote? Independents, democrats, and Hispanics (Though I'm too surprised at that part). Why am I not surprised that these are the people a Republican governor is trying to prevent from voting?

[siead_lietrathua]

why are they even phoning to find out they are ineligable? maybe it's diffrent here, but they mail us little cards with the location of your towns voting poll (it changes some years in boondockia), the dates you can vote, and it has your name n stuff. when you go to vote, they need that card and a form of ID, and check you off a list.
if you arent sent a card/ on the list, you aren't eligible to vote. no need for phonecalls. if anyone ever phoned us saying we couldnt vote, i would laugh n hang up, and wait for my little card.

[HYHYBT]

So what do you do if you *are* eligible but they don't send you a card?

As for the article... IF they're going to remove people from the register, then letting them know well in advance of the election is the right thing to do. That gives time for people interested enough to bother to correct errors. Whereas if they didn't call, people wouldn't find out they'd been removed until they got to the polls, and then it would be too late.

[siead_lietrathua]

you can jsut show up at the voting place with your drivers liscence and they will check the list for your name. (the places have hugs signs on them lol) they hate doing it because it takes longer though.

i think the problem with phoning is they arent phoning the right people. they are calling people that wern't even removed from the list.

my only question is, how can you be ineligible to vote? really, if you can show up with some id, like a birth certificate, showing you ARE a citizen, i don't think they can deny you your right to vote.

[lordlundar]

This is not just exclusive to Florida, but across the country (though this is one of the more blatant actions).

Red states across the country are trying to kill off the democratic vote with actions such as:

- requiring photo ID to vote (which much be paid for which makes the action illegal, in addition that the most improvished and least likely to afford ID tends to vote Democrat)

- closing voting stations in Democrat heavy areas

- rezoning to reduce the effective democrat victories.

All while trying to make it seem that Obama is the one breaking laws (hello Birthers). Sheriff Joe Arpaio recently sent an "investigation squad" to Hawaii get the "real" documentation on Obama, only to have the Hawaiian state government tell him to get lost.

Republicans are so desperate to beat Obama that they will resort to any means they can, legal or not, to prevent Democrats from voting. It's really all they can do, considering Romney couldn't win an honest victory if his life depended on it. (most of the Obama "attack" ads are simply showing what Romney's plans were for with the country aka destroying it)

[tropicsgoddess]

Ugh...so glad I moved from there.

[Greenday]

- rezoning to reduce the effective democrat victories.

To be fair, the democrats do gerrymandering all the time too. It's definitely not an exclusive act of the republicans.

[lordlundar]

To be fair, the democrats do gerrymandering all the time too. It's definitely not an exclusive act of the republicans.

True, it's just the levels that these actions are being done is just plain ridiculous.

In the past, both sides have done it to gain a minor edge. This time around the republicans are blatantly trying to game the system and don't care.

[crashhelmet]

why are they even phoning to find out they are ineligable? maybe it's diffrent here, but they mail us little cards with the location of your towns voting poll (it changes some years in boondockia), the dates you can vote, and it has your name n stuff. when you go to vote, they need that card and a form of ID, and check you off a list.
if you arent sent a card/ on the list, you aren't eligible to vote. no need for phonecalls. if anyone ever phoned us saying we couldnt vote, i would laugh n hang up, and wait for my little card.

Because if they send you a letter that says you're ineligible to vote, and but you are actually eligible, there is now concrete proof of the fraud. Phone calls are a tactic that can convince many people without giving them the proof needed to file charges.

[Racket_Man]

Because if they send you a letter that says you're ineligible to vote, and but you are actually eligible, there is now concrete proof of the fraud. Phone calls are a tactic that can convince many people without giving them the proof needed to file charges.

unless you have CallerID and catch the "message" on your voice mail with time and date stamp. this is especially true with cell phones these days as these capture the incoming number with a time and date stamp.

[daleduke17]

- requiring photo ID to vote (which much be paid for which makes the action illegal, in addition that the most improvished and least likely to afford ID tends to vote Democrat)

Then how should the polling place prove you are who you say you are? Or does this fall into the Chicago-area tactic of "vote early, vote often"?

[lordlundar]

Daleduke, there are plenty of acceptable methods of identification: SSN card, Utility bill, Birth Certificate, etc. All of those are fine and none of them require an additional fee to process.

Scott wants those measures declared insufficient citing voter fraud (which he has yet to provide any proof that hasn't been debunked) and require Photo ID. Those IDs require an additional payment which makes it a Poll tax which is illegal.

[crashhelmet]

unless you have CallerID and catch the "message" on your voice mail with time and date stamp. this is especially true with cell phones these days as these capture the incoming number with a time and date stamp.

*67 prior to dialing marks your number as Blocked to caller ID. There is also software for telephone systems that can mask your phone number as something else. All tricks that collections agencies use all the time to trick the people they're calling to answer the phone.

[Andara Bledin]

Then how should the polling place prove you are who you say you are? Or does this fall into the Chicago-area tactic of "vote early, vote often"?

It's not their place to police that, really. They check you off once you come through, and should you steal somebody's identity at the polling booth and that person then comes through, it will be an issue at that point, not before.

Honestly, in this day and age, it's much, much more difficult to pull that kind of stunt than it once was, and so far, evidence suggests that it just doesn't happen to any relevant degree.

These days, voter fraud is far more likely to be the tactics used by the Republican party and their cronies to disenfranchise the poor and minority voters with such things as moving polling places with no notice, reducing the number of polling booths to far below the necessary amount so that those affected have to wait on the order of 4 hours or so just to get to the head of the line, and telling people they aren't eligible to vote for dubious reasons through outright lies.

^-.-^

[daleduke17]

Daleduke, there are plenty of acceptable methods of identification: SSN card, Utility bill, Birth Certificate, etc. All of those are fine and none of them require an additional fee to process.

Scott wants those measures declared insufficient citing voter fraud (which he has yet to provide any proof that hasn't been debunked) and require Photo ID. Those IDs require an additional payment which makes it a Poll tax which is illegal.

Utility bills require an additional fee: pay the monthly bill, or don't get a bill. If you need a replacement SSN card, you pay a fee. So, poll tax either way.

Some states offer free ID cards to certain groups (disabled, over 65, etc). Make the ID cards free for all. Or, when you register to vote, take your registration card to the DMV and get the free ID card. You have to show the photo card to vote. No poll tax there.