We get all kinds of wackos in Florida. The majority are old, well-to-do, from the north, cranky, bored, Republican, and a little bit crazy.These are the folks who elected our latest governor, one Rick Scott, a Texan I've been told, who somehow, unfortunately, made his way to the Sunshine state and with the help of a $300 million payoff by his old health care company (which committed the largest Medicare fraud in history) bought the guv's office in Tallahassee.
Everyone knows that it is natural for Republican politicians to lie. That's why they're Republicans. But we hope, on occasion, they would at least pretend to care about the people they were elected to serve, and that they might actually believe in the freedom and democracy about which they prattle world without end.
In the state of Florida, inundated with wackos (including Teapot Crackpots), common sense and commonwealth are two concepts our governor and his Republican cohorts in the state legislature don't understand or don't care about. Consider their views on voting, which is essential to a democracy: Only certain people should vote - well-to-do, white Republicans; it's not right that minorities, poor people and the aged should also show up at the polls - at least not every time.
So, to combat this problem of undesirable people voting in Florida, the guv and his tribe got together and decided to lie to their constituents. They discovered "voter fraud"! There are people, they said, who are voting who have no right to be voting. Some of them are not even citizens, they said. Some of them are black or brown or poor or old. Many of them vote for Democratic candidates. Therefore, we have to fix this "voter fraud" problem.
"We'll purge the voter rolls and we'll disqualify all those we would like to believe might be ineligible to vote!" That's what the guv and his gang said.
So in the last election cycle a voter purge was ordered. Lots of people were cut from the rolls of eligible voters. Unfortunately, the huge majority of them were not ineligible and legitimate voters were turned away from the polls.
This was all President Obama's fault, of course. Isn't everything President Obama's fault in the wacky world of the GOP? The DHS has a program called SAVE (System Alien Verification for Entitlements Program). The Department of Homeland Security disallowed Florida officials from using that database and that's why the guv and his goofies got everything all wrong.
Well, not really. The database has some errors; it is not correct so it wouldn't have mattered if Florida had been able to access it. In fact, Florida should not use it! A coalition of civil-rights groups noted that "the SAVE database used to cross-reference names on Florida's lists of registered voters ... cannot verify U. S.-born citizens or those born overseas to U.S. citizens." There's no appeal process (which was promised). And 80% of the people who end up with their names in the SAVE database are minorities.
Nevertheless, another purge of Florida's voting rolls has been ordered and is underway. The same problems persist meaning that the people the guv's cronies say are ineligible may not be ineligible at all! And following the guv's guidelines may well mean that once again, many folks who are righteous registered voters will be expunged from the list - especially if they are of one of the "minorities."
But this year some county election supervisors are not kissing the guv's ring. They're saying they have the right to remove people from the voter rolls and the guv better come up with better and more reliable information before they're going to do so.
This year, also, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was asked by Florida's Secretary of State to investigate voter fraud. Part of the fantasy perpetrated by our Republican leaders is that there are hordes of unregistered, ineligible voters rushing to the polls to elect Democrats to public office. Other states run by God's Own Pissants (GOP) claim the same thing.
But there's a huge problem! Voter fraud is, for all extents and purposes, non-existent! In Florida the powers-that-be went after a group known as the Florida New Majority, "an established progressive organization known for advocating the spread of democratic participation across the country. The organization was vital in registering scores of minorities last year--something which Republicans generally don't like."
The investigation didn't turn up any fraud in the suspected places or in the work of the Florida New Majority, "but it did stumble across a little fraud from the Strategic Allied Consultants--a GOP contractor that made the news last last year for falsifying registration forms. Earlier this year, two former employees of SAC admitted to law enforcement officials that they did indeed commit voter fraud." Two women confessed to submitting fake voter registration forms. They had been told they wouldn't get paid unless they made their "quota," and it was suggested in no uncertain terms they were not to register Democrats.
So, it's not the supposed "fox" out there who's dangerous, it's the "hens"in the chicken coop up in Tallahassee. What little fraud there is, is committed by Republicans.
Not that it matters much. The U.S. Supremes, in their infinite wisdom and due to the mental cloister in which the majority live, decided there is no more racism in our country and therefore we didn't need all the protections provided our minorities by the Voting Rights Act. Florida saw that as an opportunity, and acting upon the usual Republican premise that freedom is whatever the Republicans say it is and democracy is a good thing only if Republicans are in power, now requires a voter to show a state drivers license in order to vote in national/federal elections.
That's also fraudulent for the only possible purpose such a requirement can serve, in light of the lack of voter fraud, is to keep minority voters, the poor and the aged at home on election day.
Welcome to the world - GOP style.
Note: Some of the information contained in this article came from Alternet.org here.
