As reported in ProgressiveSouth's alert diary a few days ago, late last week the Republicans in the Florida House tried to ram through a sweeping voter suppression bill in the final weeks of the session with no debate or public input. But after cries of protest from people like you across the country, Florida House leaders have backed down from their latest efforts to suppress votes and disenfranchise voters. We aren't out of the woods yet, but your calls and emails have made a difference.
As a quick background, here's the Miami Herald's summary of the bill:
A House council hurriedly passed a sweeping rewrite of Florida election laws Friday after shutting down debate and public comment, prompting an uproar and cries of "travesty" from opponents.
Like a similar Senate version, the House bill would ban two forms of voter ID at the polls now used mainly by older voters and require paid initiative-petition circulators to register with the state. It also would require people whose address changed in the month before an election to cast provisional ballots, prohibit anyone from interacting with voters in a floating 100-foot zone outside polling places and make it more difficult for third-party groups to register new voters.
But the St. Petersburg Times reports this morning that amid cries of protest across the state and across the country, the slimy GOPers who sponsored the bill are backing off.
Following harsh criticism from voting rights groups and a threatened veto by Gov. Charlie Crist, House leaders have retreated from a sweeping overhaul of Florida's election laws.
The full House is expected to debate a much milder version today, a week after a House council approved the earlier version while shutting down legislative debate and public comment.
The new version omits a provision to eliminate as acceptable two forms of ID used mainly by older voters; requirements that paid petition circulators must register with the state; a requirement that voters who change their address close to an election must cast provisional ballots; and rules that would have made it a crime for anyone to interact with voters within 100 feet of a polling place.
"Almost all of the provisions that had any controversy are going to be removed from the bill on the floor of the House," said House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. "I think it will take a lot of the tension out of the air."
I guess the GOP cretins in Tallahassee didn't expect quick the groundswell of outrage against their blatant efforts to disenfranchise Florida voters, but they were wrong.
In rapid-fire fashion in recent days, the New York Times published a harshly critical editorial, a coalition of voter advocacy groups criticized the Legislature's lack of deliberation and the bill's contents, and election supervisors, including Deborah Clark of Pinellas County, said the bill would have erected new barriers to voting.
It's fun to watch Gov. Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning run away from the bill as fast as Dick Cheney runs away from the truth. As noted above, Crist threatened to veto the bill, and Browning (who's no friend to voters' rights) has made it clear he doesn't want to touch the bill with a 10-foot pole:
Secretary of State Kurt Browning, the state's top elections official, emphasized that most of what was in the original election-law overhaul bill was not sought by his office and that the few changes offered by his office are not considered "must-pass" this year, which is not an election year.
"The system we currently have works and works well, and I think voters are better served by the current law," Browning said.
We aren't out of the woods yet. The Times article doesn't detail the provisions that are going to be left in the new version of the bill when it comes up for debate on the House floor, and a more onerous bill is still lurking around in the Senate. But it looks like the Democratic House members have found a spine, and have filed 47 amendments to the new bill, HB 7149.
Despite the House leadership's decision to gut its original bill, debate is expected to be testy. Many Democrats remain outraged by last week's spectacle in which a committee's Republican majority shut down debate and testimony to quickly force a vote that was needed to get the bill in position for floor debate.
We might want to get out some popcorn. Thanks to everyone who made their voices heard.