Governor Scott’s goal in 2014, to shrink the minority vote
By Roger Caldwell
There will be a gubernatorial election in 2014 in Florida, and the strategy is to win the position by spending the most money. In 2010, Rick Scott spent over $70 million of his own money to win the election, and this time around, he will spend $120 million of the Republican Party and his money.
Former Governor Charlie Crist will probably be the Democratic candidate, and Floridians trust Crist more than they trust Governor Rick Scott. Ex-Governor Crist will be supported by the minority vote, and Scott knows that he must shrink and eliminate the minority vote to win the election.
Governor Scott is supported by the Tea Party and large corporations in the state, but Crist is supported by the grassroots’ Floridians. In order for Crist to win, he must expand the base by registering more new voters who are African Americans and Latinos. Crist knows that he will not be able to raise more money than Scott, but Florida has more Democrats registered on the voter rolls.
In 2012, more than 8.4 mil-lion Floridians voted in the federal election and President Obama, a Democrat, won. Floridians went to the polls and waited up to five hours to make their voice heard, but Republicans in 2014 want to control and limit the number of voters that turn out. The Republicans do not like early voting and they will work to decrease the number of early-voting sites.
Governor Scott has already started a new voter purge, whose objective is to eliminate Latinos, African Americans, Asians, Caribbean, and felons off the voter rolls. Since Governor Scott has been in office, Florida’s Clemency Board that he is the Chairmen has the most restrictive criteria in the nation. There are hundreds of thou-sands of Floridians who have completed their sentences for felony convictions, but are still prohibited from exercising their right to vote.
As a result of this decision from our governor and our attorney general, minorities are disproportionately impacted by such restrictive civil rights restorative policies. Governor Scott says he is doing his job by protecting Florida residents, but it appears to me that he is shrinking the number of minorities able to vote.
The 2014 gubernatorial campaign will probably go down in the records as one of the sleazy and nastiest races in Florida’s election history. The point man for the second voter purge is Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who has already started with voter monkey business by is-suing three weeks ago an “executive directive.”
In this “executive directive,” the Secretary of State ordered election officials shouldn’t solicit the return of absentee ballots to any location except the supervisor’s office. This “executive order” did not make sense, be-cause several counties allow people to turn in absentee bal-lots at early voting sites or se-cure drop-off boxes, and never had any problems.
The goal is to restrict voting and make it harder for Floridians to vote. Its 2014, and Gov. Scott is willing to bend and break some rules, as long as he can win the gubernatorial election.
