NOTE: This diary duplicates news found in904Dem's diary now on rec list, which wasn't there when I started typing. What can I say? I'm a rural dial-up user. Will delete.
At 9:00 AM this morning the political story in Florida is. . .
The Florida Democratic Party announced Sunday morning it had gone to federal court to try and keep the polls open, particularly in South Florida where turnout has been "unprecedented."
That's not a ploy hatched by a desperate political party that's losing the election. That's the assertion of a strong political party on behalf of its members to exercise their fundamental civil right as citizens.
Gov. Scott of Florida doesn't understand what his fellow Republican governor of New Jersey does. That citizens of his state must be allowed free access to the polls come hell or high water -- literally.
Further, the Democrats' request is NOT without precedent.
The lawsuit comes after repeated public requests by FDP Chairman Rod Smith and candidates to do what Gov. Charlie Crist did in 2008 when he extended early-voting hours.
For Gov. Scott to stonewall voters is strictly an unethical political maneuver to enact letter-of-the-law "legal election fraud" by depressing turnout. Well, Floridians know the lessons of Rousseau, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- unjust laws must be resisted peacefully, and so they have been resisting in "record" and "unprecedneted" numbers.
Because of Gov. Scott’s refusal to follow precedent and extend early voting hours in the face of unprecedented voter turnout in South Florida, we are requesting in federal court that more Floridians have a meaningful chance to early vote.
Winners have no need to suppress losers. Gov. Scott, by his stubborn refusal to extend voting and the Republican dominated Florida Legislature by enacting early voting curtailment are demonstrating the behavior of losers who fear they cannot win when the playing field is level and fair for all.