Viva la Revolution!
There is a revolution underway in Florida, and it is being led by an unlikely ally - Governor Crist - and fought by over 30 Florida counties that are refusing to follow state voter verification guidelines.
On Tuesday, after observing lines as long as 8 hours in early voting stations, Gov. Charlie Crist declared an "election" state of emergency and issued an executive order extending early voting hours across Florida to 12 hours a day (7am-7pm across the state). The executive order comes during a period of record early voting.
He was quickly criticized by Republicans who stated Crist "just blew Florida for McCain."
Crist responded ''It's not a political decision, It's a people decision.''
Governor Crist's decision will have a tremendous impact on early voting which is great news for Barack Obama. This will be further enhanced by the actions of 30 Florida counties that have decided to ignore Florida voter verification guidelines that resulted from a controversial "Voter Verification Law".
From the Miami Herald,
Florida's Broward and Miami-Dade counties have announced that they will buck the state's recommendations for handling voters flagged by the controversial Florida Voter Verification Law on election day, streamlining the process to require less paperwork from challenged voters.
In total, 30 Florida counties are bucking the state's recommendations for handling voters flagged by the controversial Florida Voter Verification Law on election day. The ''no-match'' law only applied to 437,638 Floridians who registered since Sept. 8.
By refusing to follow the state suggestions, many more voters will have streamlined access to the polls (originally more than 12,000 newly registered voters could have been challenged - nearly 1/4 of the so called ''no match'' voters were in Broward county).
The Republican attempts to institutionalize voter disenfranchisement are finally being exposed. Florida (along with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in Ohio and other election integrity advocates) are on the front line of a battle that needs to sweep the nation.
Viva La Revolution!