FORMER FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR SAYS REPUBLICANS ACTIVELY SUPPRESSED THE BLACK VOTE

–Alex Brown/Think Progress
In a 630-page deposition, released to the press yesterday, former Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer described a systemic effort by Republicans to suppress the black vote. Referring to a 2009 meeting with party officials, Greer said “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting.” He also said party officials discussed how “minority outreach programs were not fit for the Republican Party.” Florida is currently embroiled in a controversy surrounding Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) voter purge program, which disproportionately affects voters of color. Fifty-eight percent of Scott’s original list of voters who were supposedly ineligible to voter were Hispanic while Hispanics make up only 13 percent of Florida’s eligible voters. Greer and the GOP cut ties in 2010, and he is currently facing felony corruption charges. (HT: Salon)

Republican Michigan Governor Vetoes GOP Voter Suppression Law

By Jeff Spross/Think Progress
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) bucked his fellow Republicans on Tuesday byvetoing a voter ID law crafted by GOP members of the state legislature, the Detroit Free Press reports:

Among the bills vetoed was one requiring photo ID for first voter registration or to obtain an absentee ballot, a requirement that African-American activists claimed was an attempt to deter voting by the urban poor.

Snyder said in a statement that “he appreciates the issue of ensuring voters are eligible and U.S. citizens, however this legislation could create voter confusion among absentee voters.”

Laws requiring residents to present state-issued photo IDs tend to disproportionately effect low-income American citizens — who also tend to vote Democratic — because they often lack the resources and the time to acquire the proper documentation.

Snyder also invalidated a requirement that voters check a box on an electoral ballot or application affirming they are citizens — which could have intimidated voters who didn’t understand the question or weren’t native English speakers — as well as new restrictions and requirements on the operations of third party groups registering voters in the state.

The latter measure bears a resemblance to laws passed in Florida, which were blocked by a federal judge, who ruled that restricting registration in common areas that voters frequent imposes an unconstitutional burden on voter registration efforts.

Virtual Blackout From National Media On Voter Suppression In Florida

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has directed his administration to purge the state’s voting rolls of thousands of registered voters prior to the November election. But his list, which purports to include only “non-citizens,” targets mostly Democrats and Hispanics and, as ThinkProgress hasdocumented, may disenfranchise hundreds of citizens who are eligible to vote.

The story of a sitting governor of a state with a history of presidential election shenanigansknowingly purging his own, eligible constituents from the voter rolls is the definition of major news, and yet remarkably, in the first five months of the year, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today have published a total of zero articles about Scott’s actions. The New York Times did slightly better, printing one story on page 16 of the Friday, May 18th edition. The article ran under the credulous headline: “Florida Steps Up Effort Against Illegal Voters.”

Florida’s local newspapers, led by The Miami Herald, have been far more diligent in reporting the governor’s effort to disenfranchise eligible voters. While it may be easy to dismiss this as local fare, the implications of Scott’s purge could potentially swing the presidential election come November. Remember, months before anyone had ever heard of hanging chads, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) conducted a similar cleansing of the voter rolls in 2000, which resulted in thousands of eligible voters being knocked off the rolls in time for the infamous Gore v. Bush election.