Florida voters facing a long, long ballot in November

via Fark

Many of Florida's November ballots to be the most complicated ever: 10 pages long, five pages front-and-back, printed in English, Spanish and Creole. What could possibly go wrong?

TALLAHASSEE — Brace yourselves, Florida voters: The election ballot you'll see this fall is longer than ever.

It's so long that voters will have to fill out multiple sheets with races on both sides, then feed those multiple pages through ballot scanners, one page at a time.

It's a pocketbook issue, too: Some people who vote by mail will have to dig deeper and pay at least 65 cents postage and up to $1.50 to return their multipage ballots in heavier envelopes.

More than ever, county election supervisors say, people should vote early or request an absentee ballot to avoid predicted bottlenecks at the polls on Election Day.

"This is the longest ballot I can remember," said Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark. "The voter who sees this ballot the first time may need smelling salts."


more keeping it simple here:


Florida voters facing a long, long ballot in November - Tampa Bay Times

Potentially fraudulent forms in 11 FL counties; Concerns emerge in other states; RNC scrambles to contain damage



A major element of the Republican National Committee's overall attempt to game the 2012 elections by trying to affect who gets to vote and who does not, has just been stopped dead in its tracks.

Along with it, a criminal election fraud complaint has now reportedly been filed with law enforcement in the state of Florida against a Republican firm, owned by a paid Mitt Romney consultant, which was hired by the GOP to carry out partisan voter registration operations in at least five battleground states.

Millions of dollars were spent on the aborted effort by the GOP over the last two months --- their largest single expenditure in several of the states where the scheme was in full tilt --- to seek out Romney supporters only, and sign them up to vote.

The strategy resulted in (or included) fraudulent registration forms collected by the firm and then submitted in Florida by the state GOP with voter addresses, signatures and party affiliations changed. Election officials in the state have told The BRAD BLOG that they fear the scheme could result in the disenfranchisement of a still-unknown number of otherwise legal voters, and they are taking extraordinary measures to try and contain the potential damage as they attempt to work through more than 45,000 new and updated registrations submitted by the GOP and verify their legitimacy.

The fraudulent voter registration forms have so far been discovered in "at least 11" FL counties at this hour, all submitted by the state Republican Party and collected by the RNC's top voter registration firm, a shell company formed in June called Strategic Allied Consulting, as owned by a notorious GOP operative named Nathan Sproul.


more

| Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal Widens, Becomes Criminal Matter in Florida

We know that the Kochs are trying to buy the presidential election, but did you know they are also trying to buy the Florida Supreme Court and pack it with Rick Scott appointees?


Cheers to Carl Hiassen of the Miami Herald for calling them out:


The new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires from Wichita, Charles and David Koch. They couldn’t care less about Florida, but they love to throw their money around. Last week they uncorked the first of a series of commercials from their political action committee, Americans for Prosperity. The targets are Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince....

The mission of the Kochs, hiding as always behind their super PAC, is to get the three justices dumped at the polls so that Gov. Rick Scott can appoint replacements.

This is worth repeating: If the Kochs have their way, Rick Scott — yes, that Rick Scott — gets to pack the Supreme Court with his own hand-picked crew.

Yikes is right.

Billionaire Koch brothers try to buy state’s court - Carl Hiaasen - MiamiHerald.com


The Palm Beach Post also has an editorial decrying the GOP tactic:

The Republican Party of Florida ... wants justices Lewis, Pariente and Quince off the court because they have ruled, correctly, against GOP-written constitutional amendments and against interests that support the party. If the justices don’t get 50 percent of the vote, Gov. Scott gets to appoint their replacements.


Editorial: Republican Party wrong to target Florida Supreme... | www.palmbeachpost.com



The main theme of the GOP is that the 3 voted in favor of Al Gore in the 2000 recount case and voted to reverse the conviction of a murderer who "silently acquiesced" in his lawyer's decision to admit guilt, even though both of these decisions were before the last retention election for these justices. They are also attacking the Court's 5-2 decision rejecting GOP legislative action to derail the Affordable Care Act.

The right to vote includes no fees if at a polling station- The State is imposing a financial burden on low income persons who due to circumstances, travelling, need a person to assist etc. Also charging for a right to vote is ilegal. Whyhas some smart lawyer not challenged this.

Wow....hope this helps the Florida voters: Dude, wut?

Lol. That should take the edge off.

Yeah. Ten Pages? Hope it's printed on rice paper....