May 10, 2011 – For the past 40 years, Floridian’s have been able to report updates to their personal information when they went to polling places to vote. No more. The assault on democracy and free elections includes a variety of obstacles intended to block access to voting booths throughout the country.
Florida’s new voting law will block the vote of people who have had a change of address, got married or divorced and changed their name, of it the moved because they are serving in the military. Additional changes cut early voting ballot time from 14 days to 8, and places profound restrictions on absentee voting, which heavily impacts military families.
Republicans are citing voter fraud issues as their reason to stop people from voting, but the argument is false. According to Salon.com, A Department of Justice document found that “between the fall of 2002 and the fall of 2005, there were only 95 defendants charged with federal election-fraud-related crimes in the whole country. Salon also reports that republicans have been “using foreclosure lists to challenge the edibility of voters.”
The massive hole in the voter fraud argument and aiming new laws at the poor, the elderly, and military families, gives substantial weight to the idea that republicans are attempting to influence the outcome of future elections in their favor, by manipulation voter registration laws.
