Losing our democracy

It would be a comforting thought to believe that now that Americans know exactly what the teabaggers they elected to office last year are all about, they'd have the opportunity to vote these lunatics and greedmongers out next year. However, it's not going to be that easy, as out of mind of a media that's been obsessed with Charlie Sheen, Pippa Middleton's bra, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump, these new Republican leaders, in particular the teabagger governors, have been hard at work shoring up the voting system so that it benefits them.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has signed a bill specifically designed to suppress the vote among low-income and elderly voters -- those most likely to vote Democratic:

Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed a controversial overhaul of the election laws that Republicans say is needed to prevent voter fraud and Democrats call a cynical act of partisanship to improve GOP chances in Florida next year.

Critics assailed him for endorsing “voter suppression” tactics aimed at making it tougher for President Barack Obama to capture Florida’s prized 29 electoral votes in 2012.

“I want people to vote, but I also want to make sure there’s no fraud involved in elections,” Scott said. “All of us as individuals that vote want to make sure that our elections are fair and honest.”

But some supervisors who run elections in Florida say the state’s voter registration database is highly reliable. A statement from their statewide association warns Scott that the changes could cause chaos and confusion at the polls next year.

The League of Women Voters says it will suspend voter-registration activity because the bill requires such groups’ volunteers to register with the state and face fines of up to $1,000 for not submitting voting forms within 48 hours.

The bill also cuts early voting days from 15 to eight and requires some voters who have moved to cast provisional ballots, a change most likely to affect college students.

The bill wipes out policy in place for four decades in Florida that allowed voters to update their legal addresses when they voted.

Republicans call that an invitation to fraud, so the new law allows only voters who have moved within the same county to update their addresses at the polls.

None of the bill’s most controversial provisions was pushed by Scott’s chief elections expert, Secretary of State Kurt Browning. He broke weeks of silence Thursday about an hour after his boss, Scott, signed the legislation.

“I know bad election law when I see it,” Browning said. “I don’t think this bill is bad for Florida. … It doesn’t negatively impact Florida voters.”

The law takes effect immediately, which means its first test will be in Miami-Dade, the state’s largest county, which is electing a new county mayor and other officials Tuesday. Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola will end early voting Saturday — three days before Election Day, as the new law requires — a decision candidate Marcelo Llorente is fighting in court.

But in five counties it won’t go into effect until the federal government approves. Any change in state election laws that affects those counties — Hillsborough, Collier, Monroe, Hendry and Hardee — requires approval by the Justice Department in a process known as “pre-clearance.”

The legislation generated far more public opposition than any other bill of the 2011 session. Some was engineered by the League of Women Voters, which has thousands of members in Florida.

Scott’s office reported 14,000 calls and e-mails in opposition; nearly 1,300 in favor. A notation by Scott’s staff said:

“Majority oppose. Urging Governor to veto these bills because they change our voting laws, making it more difficult for some voters to cast their vote.”

But Rick Scott doesn't give a rat's ass what the voters want. Now that he's safely ensconced in office, and now that his approval ratings are plummeting as those in Florida who participated in voting-by-tantrum last year realize just what they've done, it's imperative for him to shore up his power by making sure he can't be voted out.

And what's the excuse given for the new law? To prevent "voter fraud." But as the St. Petersburg Times notes, only 31 cases were referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement between 2008 and 2011. Think about it: For ten cases a year, Rick Scott has just disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters. This is not about "voter fraud." This is about cementing power in the hands of a health care fraud.

And it isn't just in Florida. In Wisconsin, teabagger Governor Scott Walker is attempting to similar disenfranchise those who might dare vote him out of office. Last month Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a similar bill.

The Republican Party has become so corrupt that it no longer can claim to represent the people of this country. And having lost the war of ideas, the party is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnow all about power -- getting it, consolidating it, keeping it. And the most certain way to do that without bloodshed is to make sure that those who would use the electoral process to remove them from office have no way to do so.

But why should the media report how our representative democracy is being taken away from us? Newt Gingrich said something stupid again, there's a high profile rape case in New York, and who knows -- perhaps Lindsey Lohan will act up again.

UPDATE May 22, 2011: Leslie Parsley looks at all of these efforts nationwide.