Tag: Voter Suppression
DeSantis & Crew Kick 900K Dems and NPAs Off Fla’s Voter Rolls
Recognizing that their party is dying and that the only way to win elections is to cheat, Florida Gov. (and erstwhile presidential contender) Ron DeSantis and his henchmen in the Florida Legislature last year turned to trimming the voter rolls of pesky Democrats and Independents.
According to the Florida Bulldog, the Republican wrecking crew was responsible for culling nearly 900,000 potential non-Republican voters from the rolls:
Statistics compiled by the Florida Division of Elections show the total number of registered active voters in the state fell from 14,536,811 to 13,540,135 as of Dec. 1. That’s a reduction of 996,676, to about the same number of active registered voters as in 2019 – even as the U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier this year that Florida is once again the fastest-growing state in the nation. Florida’s estimated population was 22.2 million as of July 1, 2022.
… Voter records from South Florida’s three most populous counties reveal similar declines. In Miami-Dade 85,640 voters were moved from active to inactive status, with 90.75 percent being Democrats and NPAs; in Broward, 190,876 were moved to inactive status, with 84.24 percent being Democrats and NPAs; in Palm Beach, the active voter rolls were sliced by 156,148 voters, 82.75 percent of whom were registered Democrats or NPAs.
All this was done in the service of “election integrity” — an even greater oxymoron that “military intelligence” when used by the Republican Party.
Florida Judge Questions DeSantis’ Gerrymandered Districts
“A Florida judge signaled skepticism Thursday that he could uphold Gov. Ron DeSantis’ congressional districts after Florida’s lawyers admitted the districts violate the state constitution.”
— Tampa Bay Times
DeSantis’ Vote-Suppression Tactics Are Working in Florida
In May 2021 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 90, which effectively cleared the voter rolls of Florida citizens who had requested mail-in ballots. Previously, Florida voters could file one request for mail-in ballots and would receive one for any and all elections.
No more.
Although a federal judge removed several of the most egregious provisions of the law, it nonetheless is still suppressing mail-in voting, according to the Florida Reporter:
Studies show that voters who are registered to vote by mail are more likely to cast a vote.The impact on voting by mail from this new law is already coming into sharp focus: last year, Miami-Dade County had 438,000 mail ballot voters, but as of July 1st of this year, a mere 92,000 voters were enrolled in vote by mail. In Hillsborough County, only 70,000 voters are signed up to vote by mail as of July 1st, down from 320,000 before the new law went into effect. In Broward County, it’s even more dramatic: a recent review confirmed just 35,000 vote by mail sign-ups, compared to 428,000 last year. In Orange County, only 23,000 voters have requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming cycle after 140,000 voters used them in 2021.