Republicans push 'sweeping' restrictions on voting in last days of Fla legislature

Voting rights advocates were shocked after a Republican-dominated committee in the Florida House passed sweeping new election rules after allowing only six minutes of debate last Friday.

The 81-page bill, which among other things eliminates two forms of ID used mostly by elderly voters and restricts third-party voter registration, now moves to the House floor without any chance for public testimony.

A similar bill is on its way to the Senate after passing an elections committee on a 5-3 vote on party lines after being introduced for the first time despite only two weeks remaining in the state's legislative session.

As the Miami Herald reports:

A House council hurriedly passed a sweeping rewrite of Floridaelection laws Friday after shutting down debate and public comment,prompting an uproar and cries of ''travesty'' from opponents.

Likea similar Senate version, the House bill would ban two forms of voterID at the polls now used mainly by older voters and require paidinitiative-petition circulators to register with the state. It alsowould require people whose address changed in the month before anelection to cast provisional ballots, prohibit anyone from interactingwith voters in a floating 100-foot zone outside polling places and makeit more difficult for third-party groups to register new voters.

While the bill places severe restrictions on voters and voter registration, it simultaneously loosens rules on out of state political action committees:

The bill allows political committees registered in other states to beactive in Florida without complying with the Sunshine State's campaignreporting requirements, which are stricter than other states.Legislators would be allowed to create leadership funds to solicitlarge donations from special interests and lobbyists.

The House and Senate bills are also notable for what they don't include, such as provisions to expand early voting centers and hours, something Gov. Charlie Crist had to do by executive order last year after swamped early voting sites had waits of up to six hours.

A St. Petersburg Times editorial labeled the massive package a "GOP power grab":

Republican legislative leaders have lost all sense of shame with their11th-hour bill to roll back voting rights in Florida. The legislationis so disgraceful it is no wonder a Republican-led House committeedebated the bill for all of 6 minutes Friday before silencing publiccomment and approving the bill along party lines. This fast-movingtrain needs to be stopped cold.

Yesterday, the ACLU, NAACP and other civil rights groups held a press conference with Democrats to blast the bill:

"There is a chilling similarity between the way this bill wasrailroaded through committee and the provisions of the bill itself,"said Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston. "Both are unabashed attempts to limit theability of ordinary citizens to have a say in their government." Shealso singled out the bill's sponsor for criticism, saying that Sen.Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, was unable to cite a single instanceof voter fraud in the 2008 cycle that would justify the ban on twoforms of ID used mainly by retirees.

Voting advocates have cause to be concerned. With Republicans boasting strong majorities in both the Florida Senate (a 26-14 advantage) and House (76-44), there's no doubt they could pass the bill.

The wild card may be Gov. Charlie Crist (R) -- a self-described moderate with larger political ambitions, who may be reluctant to earn bad publicity with voters. Yesterday, Crist hinted that he may veto the bill:

"It always seems to me that when there may be legislation that attemptsto sort of make it harder for people to do something - the people thatwe work for -  generally that's not good. I don't look on that in afavorable light and that is true of this particularly particular partof this legislation."

One possible outcome: Republicans in the legislature will strip out some of the most controversial provisions to make it more palatable for Crist to sign, but still succeed in re-writing parts of the election code.