While Florida Extends Voting Hours, Georgia Refuses to Follow Suit

As kos noted yesterday, Florida Governor Charlie Crist extended voting hours in that state, citing huge early voting lines and waits of up to five or six hours in some areas.  

But in neighboring Georgia, Secretary of State Karen Handel is refusing to do the same. On Monday, some voters waited eight hours to vote because of machine glitches. There were other reports of voters waiting an average of three to four hours to vote in heavily Democratic and urban areas.  

In response to a request from the state Democratic Party to extend voting hours in light of these long waiting times, Handel said no:

Handel said Georgia law includes no such mechanism that would allow her, or Gov. Sonny Perdue, to do it.

Handel also said she doesn’t think it’s necessary, and called Kidd’s letter emblematic of an "orchestrated effort of that political party across the country."

Handel is referring to the fact that Georgia law apparently "doesn't allow for voting on the weekend or the Monday before Election Day." But that second comment, blaming Democrats for politicizing the situation?

That's Handel still smarting after been slapped silly by the courts yesterday for her attempted purging of the voter rolls:

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia should have sought U.S. Justice Department approval before implementing a new process of using Social Security numbers and driver's license data to check voters' immigration status, a three-judge federal panel ruled Monday.

The 27-page ruling ordered Georgia election officials to make "diligent and immediate" efforts to notify voters flagged as ineligible because of the checks that they can still cast paper ballots on Nov. 4. The paper ballots can later be challenged by state officials if a voter is believed to be ineligible.

The state also is not allowed to remove names from lists unless voters say in writing that they are ineligible.

Will the Georgia Democratic Party take its request for extended early voting hours to the courts? We'll see.