ST. PETERSBURG – Progress Florida executive director Mark Ferrulo made the following statement in response to Gov. Rick Scott Administration’s announcement of proposed changes to Florida election law in light of the 2012 election fiasco created by Gov. Scott and the Florida legislature:
ST. PETERSBURG – Progress Florida executive director Mark Ferrulo made the following statement in response to Gov. Rick Scott Administration’s announcement of proposed changes to Florida election law in light of the 2012 election fiasco created by Gov. Scott and the Florida legislature:
“Today’s announcement reaffirms what we already know: you can’t trust Rick Scott to fix Florida’s election problems.
This is the same governor that signed the legislation (HB 1355) into law that disenfranchised thousands of voters, caused Floridians to wait in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, and turned our state once again into a nationwide punch line. This is the same governor that flatly refused to add more early voting days during the long lines of the 2012 elections and stated ‘we did the right thing.’ This latest proposal falls FAR short of what is needed to avoid a repeat of the 2012 elections.
Scott’s latest proposal doesn’t necessarily implement any additional early voting hours from what we saw last year. To avoid a repeat of last year’s election fiasco, when voters endured unforgiveable wait times of up to eight hours, we need to have at least 14 days AND 12 hours per day of early voting for all Florida voters. Voters should have the same access to the ballot regardless of what county they reside in.
Finally, by mandating the last Sunday but allowing for early voting to continue to be limited to eight days, the first Saturday before the election could be eliminated in many counties. In 2012, nearly 250,000 people cast votes on that first Saturday before the election – one of the highest volume days of early voting.”
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Progress Florida is the state’s largest netroots organization and works toward building a more progressive Florida. Learn more at www.ProgressFlorida.org.