Florida Gov. Refuses To Extend Voter Registration Deadline Over Hurricane

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-scott-refuses-extend-voter-registration-deadline-hurricane-matthew



Hours after warning state residents that the hurricane bearing down on their coastline “will kill” those who remain in evacuation zones, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that he would not extend the Tuesday deadline for voter registration.

“Everybody has had a lot of time to register,” Scott, who chairs the pro-Donald Trump Rebuilding America Now PAC, said in a storm update on Thursday night. “On top of that, we’ve got lots of opportunities to vote: Early voting, absentee voting and Election Day. So, I don’t intend to make any changes.”

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign requested a deadline extension to accommodate the thousands of voters who have been forced from their homes by the fierce winds and storm surge caused by the hurricane, which was downgraded to a Category 3 storm overnight.

“We are hoping and expecting that officials in Florida will adapt deadlines to account for the storm,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in a Thursday press conference, according to Politico.

While Politico reported that campaign staffers did not say if they planned to sue over Scott's decision, a partner at Perkins Coie, a law firm that works for both Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee wrote a tweet saying other folks would “have the last say on this.”


“#seeyouincourt”, attorney Jean-Jacques Cabou wrote on Twitter, including Scott’s handle.

Follow
J Cabou @CabouJ
Well @FLGovScott I know some folks who are gonna have the last say on this. And none of them is you. #seeyouincourt https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/784178507052093440 …
7:07 PM - 6 Oct 2016
155 155 Retweets 215 215 likes



A surge of voter interest is typical in the final days before registration closes, according to those who study Florida elections. Politico reported that a remarkable 86,000 people registered to vote in the last eight days before the deadline in 2012, 40 percent of whom were Democrats, according to University of Florida political science professor Daniel Smith. Only 21 percent were Republican.

Officials in South Carolina, another state expected to be affected by the storm, have already extended the voter registration deadline.

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Well that's bullshit. I know someone who registered today. Here goes another lawsuit.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a49324/voter-suppression-indiana-wisconsin/

ppaca wrote:Well that's bullshit. I know someone who registered today. Here goes another lawsuit.

How long have people had to register?

In the year 2016 the only way republican ideas can make their way to congress is through voter suppression and district gerrymandering. Here we see a clear example of the former.

Floridatexan wrote:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-scott-refuses-extend-voter-registration-deadline-hurricane-matthew



Hours after warning state residents that the hurricane bearing down on their coastline “will kill” those who remain in evacuation zones, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that he would not extend the Tuesday deadline for voter registration.

“Everybody has had a lot of time to register,” Scott, who chairs the pro-Donald Trump Rebuilding America Now PAC, said in a storm update on Thursday night. “On top of that, we’ve got lots of opportunities to vote: Early voting, absentee voting and Election Day. So, I don’t intend to make any changes.”

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign requested a deadline extension to accommodate the thousands of voters who have been forced from their homes by the fierce winds and storm surge caused by the hurricane, which was downgraded to a Category 3 storm overnight.

“We are hoping and expecting that officials in Florida will adapt deadlines to account for the storm,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in a Thursday press conference, according to Politico.

While Politico reported that campaign staffers did not say if they planned to sue over Scott's decision, a partner at Perkins Coie, a law firm that works for both Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee wrote a tweet saying other folks would “have the last say on this.”


“#seeyouincourt”, attorney Jean-Jacques Cabou wrote on Twitter, including Scott’s handle.

Follow
J Cabou @CabouJ
Well @FLGovScott I know some folks who are gonna have the last say on this. And none of them is you. #seeyouincourt https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/784178507052093440 …
7:07 PM - 6 Oct 2016
 155 155 Retweets   215 215 likes



A surge of voter interest is typical in the final days before registration closes, according to those who study Florida elections. Politico reported that a remarkable 86,000 people registered to vote in the last eight days before the deadline in 2012, 40 percent of whom were Democrats, according to University of Florida political science professor Daniel Smith. Only 21 percent were Republican.

Officials in South Carolina, another state expected to be affected by the storm, have already extended the voter registration deadline.

***********

How long have they had to register? Nuf said.

Federal judge extends voter registration deadline, rebukes state for ‘irrational’ decision

Gov. Rick Scott refused to extend the state’s voter registration deadline because of Hurricane Matthew. On Monday, a federal judge extended the deadline a day, to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Gov. Rick Scott refused to extend the state’s voter registration deadline because of Hurricane Matthew. On Monday, a federal judge extended the deadline a day, to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Gray Rohrer TNS

BY STEVE BOUSQUET
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

A judge on Monday extended Florida’s voter registration deadline by one more day, through Wednesday, because of Hurricane Matthew, calling it “irrational” for the state to reject the idea.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted the Florida Democratic Party’s request for a temporary restraining order, which included a rebuke of the state for refusing to extend the deadline past its scheduled time of 5 p.m. Tuesday.

“Quite simply, it is wholly irrational in this instance for Florida to refuse to extend the voter registration deadline when the state already allows the governor to suspend or move the election date due to an unforeseen emergency,” Walker wrote in a 16-page order. “If aspiring eligible Florida voters are barred from registering to vote, then those voters are stripped of one of our most precious freedoms.”

Walker also said state law is unconstitutional because while Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, can suspend or reschedule an election, no state law allows for an extension of the voter registration deadline.

“The right to vote is a ‘precious’ and ‘fundamental’ right,” Walker wrote, quoting from an earlier case.

The judge said more than 100,000 “aspiring eligible” Florida voters are likely to register in the final week before the deadline.

The Democratic Party’s lawsuit also asserted that the suspension of mail delivery at the height of the storm could result in some voter registration forms not reaching election offices by Tuesday, disenfranchising more Florida residents.

Walker, 49, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2012, will hold a court hearing Wednesday in Tallahassee on the Democrats’ request that the voter registration deadline be extended at least until next Tuesday, Oct. 18.

“We are thrilled with today’s ruling and we look forward to making our case on Wednesday for extending the voter registration deadline to Oct. 18,” Democratic Party chairwoman Allison Tant said. “This is a win for the people of Florida.”

Scott had rejected repeated demands from Democrats to extend the deadline.

After the order was issued Monday, Scott’s spokeswoman, Jackie Schutz, referred the Times/Herald to a previous comment. On Thursday, the governor, who also serves as chair of a pro-Donald Trump super PAC, said of the deadline: “I’m not going to extend it. Everybody has had a lot of time to register.”

Some counties have added more hours to allow more voters to register.

“State law does not allow for the state to extend voter registration, which is also noted in the judge’s ruling,” Schutz said late Monday evening.

For example, Pinellas County’s three elections offices were open all day Saturday, and St. Johns on the northeast coast, an area hard hit by Hurricane Matthew, stayed open until 7 p.m. Monday and will again on Tuesday.

“Our office is fine,” St. Johns Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes said.

To vote, you must be at least 18 years old and be a U.S. citizen. Many people register at driver’s license offices, but public libraries also sign up voters and grass-roots groups have been signing up voters for months.

Florida has more than 12.5 million voters, with thousands more joining the rolls each week.

All voters regardless of party can vote in the Nov. 8 election.

In Florida, Democrats are usually more aggressive at registering new voters closer to the fall election.

The party has focused its energy on young people, African Americans and Hispanics, especially on the I-4 corridor that bisects the state in Orlando and is considered crucial territory in presidential elections.

Hillary Clinton scheduled a voter registration campaign event in Miami Tuesday with former Vice President Al Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush by 537 votes in Florida.

Contact Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com and follow @stevebousquet

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article107360827.html#storylink=cpy

The judge has since extended voter registration in Florida to 10/18.

Well let's see, new people move in and out of Florida daily and with the evacuations from the hurricane it would only make sense to extend it. It benefited just as many republican's as democrats I would imagine.

Democrats have submitted 503,000 and Republicans fewer than 60,000 of the 2 million registration forms collected this year by about 700 third-party groups, according to the 2016 data posted online by the state Division of Elections.

http://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2016/10/fla-early-ballots-and-voter-registration-numbers-show-democrats-surging-in-fla-106392#ixzz4N6I4uQZU

This may turn into a landslide shortly. Trump needs to engage his brain. He needs to go back to the issues.