Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, told The Palm Beach Post that a new law shortening the early voting period in the state was intended to prevent Democrats from voting. Greer said that since at least 2009, GOP staff and consultants had discussed limiting early voting hours, which they believed helped Democratic candidates. He described current talk of eliminating voter fraud as a “marketing ploy.”
Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida confirmed that GOP officials had sought to limit early voting in an effort to suppress Democrat turnout. He told the Post that the effort seemed to be aimed at ethnic minorities, a key demographic for Democrats.
“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,” Greer said. “It’s not really a broad-based racist issue. It’s simply that the Republican Party gave up a long time ago ever believing that anything they did would get minorities to vote for them.”
In response to the allegations, Florida Republicans pointed out that both men are now at odds with the party. Greer resigned as chairman in 2010 after being accused of stealing money from the Florida Republican Party. Crist ran for the U.S. Senate as an independent candidate in 2010. However, Greer and Crist’s statements were also backed up by GOP consultants, who didn’t wish to be named.
I’m shocked.
r€nato
I’m sure this will get prominent mention on Fox News Channel.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
General Stuck
The disease runs deep.
The cure, deeper still
RareSanity
@r€nato:
Surely Fox News will deliver.
We just have to wait.
@General Stuck:
No cure. I believe this particular disease is terminal.
dedc79
There were plenty of reasons to suspect/know that this was the case. My favorite of them was the fact that in many of these states, you couldn’t use your college ID as an ID to vote, but you could use a gun license.
The Dangerman
Fixed for clarity.
PsiFighter37
Pardon the French, but you didn’t have to be a fucking genius to figure it out.
The fact that the news media acts like this is news is fucking pathetic. If they didn’t get so hot and bothered over shit like what a politician may or may not have done with their private parts, they would’ve discovered that there’s NO FUCKING VOTER FRAUD. And when a case does come to light, it’s usually the random nutbagger voting twice because the Kenyan socialist is the Anti-Christ. Or it’s some random GOP operative from out of state throwing perfectly good voter registration forms in the trash. Who the fuck prints out voter information that has the wrong polling location or the wrong dates? Who puts up billboards trying to intimidate the coloreds that voting is a crime? Who always tries to restrict the right to vote, to make it as hard as possible, because, gosh darn it, we’re a bunch of originalist assholes who think blacks are 3/5 of a person and that only rich white folks with a chunk of land deserve the privilege – not the right – to vote?
It’s the motherfucking Republicans, that’s who. It’s not a fucking coincidence. You can fuck a chicken once and blame it on the lights being out. You cannot go back to the barn, fuck said chicken in any and every orifice repeatedly, and then claim with a doofy shit-eating grin that that lights NEVER work, so you just assumed that everything was fine and dandy.
dmbeaster
On election night, Hannity was adamant that we could not replace the electoral college with the popular vote. Same underlying reasoning – they cant win based on voting.
monkeyfister
The Florida Republican Party’s response was, “Nuh-uh… they’re just poopyhead spliiters!” Wow.
That argument is utterly compelling, persuasive, and totally legit.
I suspect this whole republican voter ID gambit is on the road to extinction, now.
But, then– the Voting Rights Act is in the hands of the Roberts/Scalia SCOTUS, so I just might be a moot point now.
Anonymous
@dmbeaster:
Agreed. Republicans will fondly point to the fact that the electoral college margin was closer than the popular vote margin, but they shouldn’t. The Obama machine won big in the EC because they knew what mattered and went for it. Give them a chance to turn what they did in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia in every major city in America, and things will get ugly for Republicans.
Mike G
This dirty Repuke shit won’t stop until someone goes to jail for it.
Roger Moore
Gunning for the Captain Renault award, are you?
arguingwithsignposts
@PsiFighter37:
That’s one heavy duty metaphor.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@PsiFighter37:
The sad part is, it would be an improvement if the news media outside of a few left-of-center shows like Rachel Maddow’s would act like this is news rather than just ignoring it.
I LOL’d at your description of the GOP’s repetitive poultry molestation syndrome. And this goes way back. IIRC, per Perlstein, William Rehnquist got his start in practical politics working on one of the GOPs ethnic vote suppression teams performing what was euphemistically called “poll watching” in early 1960s Arizona.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Of course we knew it was all to give the GOP a playing field tilted in their favor. What amazes me is that someone’s coming out and saying it. I hope there’s more of that kind of disclosure. And that voters are listening.
PurpleGirl
One modification to your last line, John. (In a Claude Raines voice):
I’m shocked. I’m SHOCKED.
kay
It was beautiful though, because regular people really “got it” with the restrictions on early voting in a way they didn’t with voter ID.
People like early voting. It’s convenient. When you said “Republicans are limiting early voting”, the response was “why?” Ordinary people were just baffled by it. It sets the stage to allow them to suspect bad intent in a way they might not have before.
danimal
@PsiFighter37: The only “news” in this news is that people in the strategy room are coming out publicly with the info.
MattF
And don’t forget, the other half of the strategy was the revival of Jim Crow. Elizabeth Drew:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/21/voting-wrongs/
No racism there. No, not one bit.
And here’s Drew’s post-election sigh of relief:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/nov/11/victory-over-suppression/
redshirt
So? Will there be any legal consequences? If not, they’ll do it again, better, next election.
ruemara
Next up, water shall be proven to be wet, tar to be sticky and racist douchnozzles, racist douchnozzles.
Mudge
Settle down, big fella.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mike G:
I thought someone did go to jail for something similar a few years ago. Some GOP consultant?
PsiFighter37
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I guess that’s progress, but it’s not new…that’s the thing. And it’s only gotten worse – not better – as the GOP realizes they are on the road to demographic irrelevancy, there are more and more instances of this kind of crap occurring every year.
You’d have to be a goddamn fool to not make the connection. Of course, because the news media is please-don’t-make-me-crap-myself scared of being called ‘liberal’ by a bunch of conservative WATBs, they simply ‘report the facts’ and let people decide what they want from it. God forbid you tell people that 2+2 equals 4. You might just break the world if you do so.
Kyle
I suspect Holder will give this his usual wet noodle treatment.
He’s too busy coddling Wall Street fraudsters, persecuting whistleblowers and busting stores for selling a smokable plant that’s legal in their home state.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@PsiFighter37:
At best: “Some say this disadvantages minorities. In other news: Look! a squirrel on water skis!”
Michael
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Rehnquist was a clerk on the SCOTUS when they considered Brown v Board, and he recommended to Jackson that they uphold Plessy. Then that guy is on the SCOTUS for 25 years and we’re supposed to believe we live in a post-racial America?
eemom
That despicable asshole Turzai in Pennsylvania who so brilliantly announced on the public record last summer that Romtron’s winning the state was a “done” deal because of THAT voter suppression law, was a law school classmate of mine.
Not that I expected it to have any impact, but I did send him a FB e-mail with John Lewis’ “Your vote is sacred” speech from the Dem convention and the words “Shame on you.”
Hope the miserable fucker is eating his heart out now.
PsiFighter37
@Kyle: I will be disappointed if that’s the case. Obama clearly was aware in his victory speech that people were taking too goddamn long to vote. Hopefully one of his legacy projects can be to institute some kind of national voting standards that don’t lead to a crapshow depending on whether or not the GOP controls a particular state. Given his background community organizing, he should damn well be pretty interested.
scav
Where? !
well, that proves climate change is utterly not a problem as those creatures utterly didn’t evolve a way to cope with it. ahh, the media.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@PsiFighter37:
Where would you like your Internets delivered?
James E. Powell
@Anonymous:
Give them a chance to turn what they did in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia in every major city in America, and things will get ugly for Republicans.
Really. I’m sure there are a lot of untapped Democratic votes in California. There hasn’t been a presidential campaign of any consequence in years.
danielx
In other news, grass is green, water is wet, and Mickey Kaus blows goats.
ranchandsyrup
OT but this “Conservative Fact Check” place is hilarious.
http://conservativefactcheck.com/content/articles/50
Jay in Oregon
I’m shocked that one of them actually admitted it in public.
Felonius Monk
And just who is going to stop all this chicken fucking? The Supremes? The Congress of the USofA? The state legislatures? Who?
This brand of chicken fucking is now a way of life and will not go away anytime soon, no matter how much we wish it would.
Jay in Oregon
@ranchandsyrup:
…that has to be a spoof, right?
Poe’s Law in action?
ranchandsyrup
@Jay in Oregon: I’m not entirely sure myself. The folks at LGF were unsure but a consensus emerged that it’s real. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/41239_Inadvertent_Wingnut_Humor_Site_of_the_Day-_Conservative_Fact_Check/comments/#ctop
some guy
this is no surprise to Florida Dems. this is why GOTV was crucial down here, and why it was so effective. attempting to disenfranchise people backfired big time. turnout was better than in 2008 for our side. people waited 6 freaking hours to vote in some Miami-Dade precincts.
Scott is fucking toast.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
That’s for real? Sigh, I suppose it is. And what on earth has Palin got to do with anything?
But you’re right, it’s a very funny site.
Mandalay
@Mike G:
What is the specific crime that you think has been committed?
The only “crime” I see is that (in principle) the enforcement of voting regulations by state governments is entirely legal.
YMMV depending on how outrageous those regulations are viewed by the courts.
ranchandsyrup
@bemused: I thought their bubble was already hermetically sealed, but that sort of effort proves me wrong.
The commenters there (that aren’t mocking the site’s existence) seem to think it is real.
kay
@MattF:
It’s great that they’re all reporting on it, but this began with Indiana and Georgia in 2005, and a really tragic SCOTUS decision.
“Voter fraud” was reported as fact for years. It was always bullshit. It never made any sense. The claim was that people were IMPERSONATING other people. Walking in and pretending to be a different person. Come on. That’s ridiculous.
If media had simply been specific and accurate and used the correct phrase which is “voter IMPERSONATION fraud” instead of mindlessley repeating what Republicans said, people might have smelled a rat.
J R in WV
I’m only amazed that Republicans are admitting that it was a conspiracy to inhibit the ability of
minoritiesDemocratic party members to vote.It should be right next to treason, fooling with voting rights. Voting fraud is a crime for a reason, and this should count as tampering with the vote.
Smiling Mortician
@some guy:
And chickens. As furiously as possible.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
I’m still waiting on if it’s real or spoof. It’s almost too funny and lacking enough bile to be an actual wingnut creation.
Mike in NC
Who’ll be the first pundit to claim “But both sides do it”?
SiubhanDuinne
I dunno, I’m not sure I’d want to highlight that as a defense.
JWL
In response to the allegations, Florida Republicans pointed out that both men are now at odds with the party.
Montgomery Burns, eyeing a leaking pipe of radioactive fluid while accompanying a regulatory inspector: “Why, that shouldn’t be”.
MikeJ
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
Chickens have cloacae, so some of your destinations are merged.
burnspbesq
@Kyle:
In case you’ve forgotten, there’s this doctrine in Constitutional law called “Federal pre-emption.” You’ll find it in the chapter about the Commerce Clause.
As for the rest of your ridiculous critique of Holder, you can’t blame it on ignorance, so what’s your excuse?
Southern Beale
It’s DemocratIC turnout. DemocratIC. Jesus fucking Christ. How hard is is to get the goddamn motherfucking name of the party right?
DEMOCRATIC.
Damn. I don’t care how many fucking assed elections we win, until the useless goddamn media stops internalizing this RWNJ shit it’s all fucking lost.
Ben Franklin
@burnspbesq:
Holy Shite, Meester LAW. Are you gonna be representing the Prison Guard Unions when they lose population, ergo; overtime guarantees?
burnspbesq
@Mandalay:
Violations of 18 U.S.C. Sections 241 and 242.
Section 241 (excerpt):
Section 242 (excerpt):
burnspbesq
@Ben Franklin:
You’re babbling again. Take you meds, and then come back and try again.
ETA: That’s Meester Law, SIR. Show appropriate respect to your betters.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Mike in NC: My guess would be Joe Scarboro, but then that is easy.
YellowJournalism
@Mike in NC: Hey, there was a single blah fellow opening doors for old ladies at a polling place while dressed like a member of the Black Panther Party, so OF COURSE both sides do it!
Ben Franklin
@burnspbesq:
So, they have retained your services?
kay
It’s really an amazing story. Republicans created a crime, “voter impersonation fraud” and then 30 state legislatures passed laws combatting the invented crime.
The part that rankles is the assumption that a certain group of people were guilty of this crime, people felt perfectly free to level that accusation, and UT had NO basis in reality. None.
That would not have happened BUT FOR the groups that were assumed guilty. People would have said “WTF? Since when are voters impersonating other voters? Is that COMMON, where you walk in and give another voters name?” There was just this acceptance, poor people and minorities, sure, they’re all felons, conspiring to commit this crazy crime.
No one even walked thru how they might pull this off, it was just assumed it was happening.
Litlebritdifrnt
BTW have you seen the latest Rachael Maddow “Lean Forward” ad on MSNBC it is AWESOME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzcLZlqgqWw
MikeJ
@burnspbesq:
I seem to recall there was unpleasantness when South Carolina declared that they could simply ignore any federal law they didn’t like. Maybe now that Spielberg has made a movie about it people will remember.
burnspbesq
@Ben Franklin:
Public-sector labor law is a highly specialized area, in which I do not specialize. They are smart enough to hire someone who knows what he or she is doing, and if they mistakenly tried to engage me, I would respectfully decline the gig and help them find qualified counsel.
Shorter me: “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” Words of wisdom, which you would do well to heed.
Ted & Hellen
Is this being reported on the MSM at all?
Ben Franklin
@burnspbesq:
Show appropriate respect to your betters.
I don’t think Authoritarian Conservatives qualify, but I respect your attempts to elevate your profession.
burnspbesq
@Ben Franklin:
Do you know any?
Ben Franklin
@burnspbesq:
All too well….You? Temet nosce
Lojasmo
@The Dangerman: @kay:
And yet voter ID was easily defeated in Minnesota. Maybe we’re special.
Mandalay
@burnspbesq:
Thanks for the info, but do you really think that could lead to any Republicans going to jail?
The Republican justifications for their behavior – however flimsy they may seem – are already out there: reduced early voting to save money, and strict voter ID laws to reduce voter fraud.
I just don’t see anyone being convicted of anything unless there are multiple Republicans legislators who confess that they contrived state legislation to specifically deprive certain people of their ability to vote.
Like I said, the real crime is that what they did was legal. We need to take all voting matters (early voting, voter IDs, redistricting, etc.) away from legislators with a vested interest in the outcome, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
kay
@Lojasmo:
Absolutely. I’m really pretty hopeful. It’s mainstream. I watched the voter ID debate in the OH legislature in 2005 and it was just crazy. No one said ” hey, wait, is this crime we’re (supposedly) preventing happening?”
It was depressing watching the SCOTUS. They don’t know anything about the country in which they live. I could ask any municipal court judge ” do poor people have problems with ID?” and they would say “yes”. It’s a class issue.
Thoughtful David
@ranchandsyrup: That is the funniest thing I think I’ve read in, oh dammit, since the “march on the electoral college campus” thing last week. These guys are the humor gift that just keeps on giving.
I mean, how can these people be that un-self-aware and just plain FLICKING stupid, and still manage to wipe their own bottoms and get a spoon to their mouths?
Matt McIrvin
@Felonius Monk: Voters need to politically punish state attorneys general for it. For the really egregious cases I think they actually might.
burnspbesq
@Mandalay:
Worth a try. In terms of deterrent value, an indictment is almost as good as a conviction. The economically rational wingnut will take into consideration the possibility of being bankrupted by defense costs before diving into a big fat gray area in the law.
ETA: Oops, well, maybe not. I forgot for a second that we’re talking about Florida, which has an unlimited homestead exemption. Your economically rational wingnut defendant will fuck his or her lawyers over the bill, knowing that they can file for bankruptcy and not lose their house.
Chris
@PsiFighter37:
The fucking ridiculous thing is that this isn’t even CLOSE to the first time one of them’s admitted as much. Lee Atwater stated openly that the Nixon strategy was consciously designed to appeal to white racists when you couldn’t say “nigger” anymore. Paul Weyrich stated openly that he couldn’t get any traction for his “religious right” idea until after Jimmy Carter attacked the last bastions of white supremacy in the South, the all-white “Christian” academies. That’s all I got off the top of my head but if there aren’t others in between, I may die of shock.
It’s not a fucking secret that 1) white racism still exists and 2) the GOP’s been appealing to it for fifty years at least (and that’s only in its modern form). It’s just not something you’re supposed to mention in polite company.
Like the existence of the Mafia in mid-20th century America, I suppose.
RedKitten
@Ted & Hellen: It made it into the Palm Beach paper…remains to be seen if it’ll develop any legs.
Mandalay
@Chris:
Interestingly, the brains behind Nixon’s Southern Strategy, Kevin Philips, was all in favor of enforcing the Voting Rights Act. He openly stated that white “negrophobe” Democrats who saw that blacks were going to vote Democrat would switch to voting for Republicans instead!
As Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, think of that.
(p.s. Philips now regularly dumps big smelly brown ones on the GOP, and seems like a good guy.)
Suffern ACE
I if I lived in Florida, I’d vote ten times for the first candidate who’d promise me a three hour wait to vote. That would seem to be an improvement in many districts over what happened earlier this month.
Another Halocene Human
You guys do realize that Greer had a falling out with the Florida Republican Party and has been talking shit about them ever since?
While I find he stories credible, they have been denying everything and basically painting him as a bitter loser who got caught doing something something shut up that’s why.
The Republican Party of Florida is a thieves’ paradise (donors beware!) but this guy is NOT the clue-by-four Florida Republican voters need.
Rick Scott may be that clue, however. Maybe a clue-by-billy-bat. Because a number of morons seem to think it’s just Scott. It’s not just Scott.
Another Halocene Human
@r€nato: I’m sure this will get prominent mention on Fox News Channel.
The real problem are the shitty local papers in the rural parts of the state. Palm Beach Post, Tampa Bay Times, Miami Times-Union (sp?) are doing good reporting, but it never trickles out where it’s really needed.
In my lulzforbrainz burg people think they’re sophistimacated if they read the NYT– way to AVOID any critical info on Florida current events or politics permanently!
kay
@Another Halocene Human:
I think the photographs helped to get national attention. That was pretty inspiring (and shameful) seeing those long lines of people, just waiting and waiting. It’s much more difficult to see people as presumptive felons when you, well, SEE them.
I really do think that kind of commitment to voting is powerful. I saw those pictures everywhere.
We’ll never convince the 27%, but we don’t need 100%. Republicans are supressing the very same groups they need to be persuading; young people, AA’s and Latinos. Those same groups are becoming aware they’re being targeted.
THAT is a losing strategy :)
pseudonymous in nc
I’ll say it again: certain parts of the US do not have a political establishment with a tradition of free and fair elections.
The establishment media does not like to report this, because U-S-A! etc., and it’s not the done thing to note that the US has a fundamentally fucked up way of conducting elections, entrusting huge powers to people who shouldn’t be trusted with a raffle draw.