Gov. Rick Scott ripped the Obama administration Friday for rejecting Florida’s application for Race to the Top education dollars, deriding the decision as stemming from the state’s refusal to accept the money “with strings attached.”
Nine states were authorized by federal officials to share $500 million in grant money aimed at accelerating improvements in early childhood programs. California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state will get the dollars to make strides in pre-kindergarten education.
Scott said he suspected Florida was turned down because the state did not commit to continuing programs after federal dollars expired — a move he said was aimed at avoiding making state taxpayers pick up the tab for new government services.
”When Florida’s application was submitted for the grant in October, we made it clear that we would not accept grant money with strings attached, additional state spending obligations, or requirements that created new burdensome regulations on private providers,” Scott said.
” We stuck to our principles, and unfortunately our insistence against irresponsibly using one-time dollars for recurring government programs did not win the favor of the administration in Washington,” he added.
Race to the Top, the centerpiece of Obama’s education policies, has proved a thorny issue for Republicans. In the GOP presidential field, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a staunch opponent, while Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is a fan.
The funding approach also supports many of the early-learning measures promoted by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state legislative leaders.
Still, Scott defied tea party activists in October when he submitted the state’s application. But he was lured by the prospect of winning as much as $100 million in federal cash for the state — in a year when he wants to pump-up Florida K-12 spending by $1 billion.
Scott insisted, though, that he wouldn’t go along with federal officials dictating terms for how the state spent the money.
Florida won a $700 million federal grant under the program last year, in its second attempt at landing the cash. But Scott has pushed back millions of dollars in aid tied to Obama’s health care overhaul. The state’s Tea Party Network, also openly demanded in the fall that he steer clear of the Race to the Top effort.
But for all the line-in-the-sand drawing, Scott in September agreed to some conditions in advance of the application.
At Scott’s urging, the Legislative Budget Commission accepted a $3.4 million federal grant under the Affordable Care Act to provide home visiting services to at-risk families. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was among those urging against the move, saying the program’s mission was murky, and he feared it could result in the state facing additional costs.
Gov. Rick Scott hailed the Obama administration’s approval Thursday of a two-year extension of the Medicaid managed-care effort underway in Broward and four other Florida counties since 2006.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the state’s bid to continue the pilot project, which supporters and some analysts have credited with saving money and improving patient health care. But the HMO-styled coverage has been criticized by many treated within the program, who complain about being forced to change doctors, travel far distances to see specialty physicians or change prescription coverage.
Along with Broward, such coverage is in place in Baker, Clay, Nassau and Duval counties.
Scott and the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration see Thursday’s approval as setting the stage for a future federal OK on the statewide managed care plan approved last spring by the Republican-led Legislature.
That plan, which has already drawn tough questioning from CMS reviewers, would shift virtually all of Florida’s 2.9 million Medicaid recipients into managed care, beginning in 2013.
“I want to publicly thank the staff at the Agency for Health Care Administration for all their hard work and perseverance in negotiating the extension of our Medicaid pilot program,” Scott said.
“ Today’s approval of the program’s extension through June of 2014 illustrates the federal government’s recognition of the great successes we’ve experienced. We’ve seen higher quality in administration of care, produced cost savings and consumers in the pilot have found improved access for Medicaid recipients,” he concluded.
Just days before Florida holds its first election under a voter law blasted by Democrats, a Senate panel announced Monday it will hold a hearing in Tampa to gauge public reaction to the new measure.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson spearheaded the call for fellow Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois to bring his Judiciary subcommittee on Constitution and Civil Rights to the state. The panel is scheduled to hold a hearing Jan. 27 in Tampa, four days before Florida’s Republican presidential primary.
Tampa’s Hillsborough County is among five Florida counties where voting law changes must be approved by the federal Justice Department because past racial conditions threatened voting rights. Nelson said, “The community has many diverse groups of voters that might be affected the most under Florida’s new law, like seniors, young voters and minorities. One recent and credible study says new laws like Florida’s could suppress millions of votes nationwide in the 2012 election.”
Democrats have pushed hard against voter laws approved in Florida and 13 other Republican-ruled states which they say are aimed at blunting Democratic turnout in next year’s presidential contest.
Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Davie, earlier this month announced that the party has launched a new website www.protectingthevote.org aimed at informing voters of the new standards — and rallying support for having them overturned.
Florida’s law is already the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and voting rights organizations.
Supporters of the state’s new law deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are merely intended to reduce the risk of voter-fraud.
The new measure reduces the number of days available for early voting, while also imposes tighter reporting standards for third-party groups that register voters. But a study earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice found that Florida’s law is part of a larger mosaic of stricter standards which could keep 5 million people nationwide from voting next year.
An NBC News/Marist poll released Sunday shows President Obama with a roughly even approval/disapproval rating in the crucial Sunshine State. A few days earlier, Quinnipiac University released a poll showing Obama’s approval ratings deep underwater.
The Marist survey of 2,119 registered Florida voters, conducted Dec. 4-7, shows 46 percent approving of the job Obama is doing as president, with 45 percent disapproving — essentially a tie given the poll’s 2.1 percent margin of error. That’s an improvement from October, when the same poll found 41 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving.
Quinnipiac University’s polls are bleaker for Obama. A Nov. 28-Dec. 5 Quinnipiac poll of 1,226 Florida voters shows only 41 percent approving of the way Obama is handling his job, with 54 percent disapproving. That’s essentially unchanged from early November, when Quinnipiac found Obama with a 41 percent approval score and 52 percent disapproval.
Both the latest Quinnipiac and Marist polls show Newt Gingrich with a double-digit lead in Florida’s Republican presidential primary race. Quinnipiac’s last poll had Gingrich at 35 percent and Mitt Romney at 22 percent among Republicans. Marist shows Gingrich with a 39-26 lead over Romney among Republican voters and a 42-27 edge among likey GOP voters. When leaners are pushed to support one candidate or another, Marist’s poll shows Gingrich with a 44-29 edge among likey GOP voters.
Gingrich is the preferred candidate of 35 percent of Republicans in the poll. Romney is favored by 22 percent. Ron Paul is a distant third at 8 percent. The poll, conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 5, has a 4.3 percent margin of error. A month ago, Herman Cain topped the GOP field in Florida with 27 percent, followed by Romney’s 21 percent and Gingrich’s 17 percent.
At the same stage four years ago, Quinnipiac’s polling showed Rudy Giuliani with an 18-point lead in Florida while eventual Florida winner and GOP nominee John McCain was a distant fourth.
The newest poll suggests Romney is a slightly stronger candidate than Gingrich in a general election matchup against President Obama. Romney holds a 45-to-42 percent lead over Obama among all Florida voters, while Obama tops Gingrich by a 46-to-44 percent margin. The general election poll of Floridians has a 2.8 percent margin of error.
Fifty-four percent of Floridians disapprove of the way Obama is doing his job, with 41 percent approving. Gov. Rick Scott has a 52 percent disapproval score, with 33 percent approving.
Democrats continued Thursday to blast new voter laws in Florida and 13 other states which they say have been crafted by Republican leaders to blunt turnout and damage President Obama’s re-election bid next year.
Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Davie, said the party has launched a new website www.protectingthevote.org aimed at informing voters of the new standards — and rallying support for having them overturned. Florida’s law is already the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and voting rights organizations.
A U.S. Senate subcommittee also plans to hold a hearing in Florida in coming weeks on the new law, following a request by Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who said the state’s new standard violates “basic rights.”
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Wasserman Schultz said Republicans are out to “rig elections.”
“By now, it’s well known they’re determined to roll back the right to vote and skew the 2012 presidential election,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Democrats and their allies have blistered the new Florida law, which reduces turnout by reducing the number of days available for early voting, while also imposing tighter reporting standards for third-party groups that register voters.
A study earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice found the new laws could keep 5 million people nationwide from voting next year.
Supporters of the measures deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are intended to reduce voter-fraud.
Wasserman Schultz, though, isn’t buying that.
A 74-page report released Thursday by the Democratic Party concluded, “every major investigation into voter fraud in the United States has arrived at the same conclusion: There is almost none. The real fraud has been the use of baseless allegations to change election laws in ways that will lead to partisan Republican gains.”
Launching his campaign by deriding rival Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals,” Republican U.S. Senate contender Connie Mack is expecting to be picketed by what his office staff called ”loony liberals” Thursday.
Mack’s namesake father punctured Democratic opponent Buddy Mackay 23 years ago with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” The son’s days-old campaign seems to be sticking to a similar script.
Southwest Florida supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to protest at 1 p.m. today outside Mack’s Cape Coral office. But once Mack staffers got hold of the rally’s electronic sign-up sheet, they fired out a press release, tying the demonstration to MoveOn.org, the left-leaning activist group founded by billionaire George Soros.
“It’s appalling that George Soros and the loony liberals of MoveOn.org are protecting Bill Nelson by staging a sit-in protest at Congressman Mack’s office,” said David James, Mack’s deputy campaign manager. ”Three days after Connie Mack entered the race for U.S. Senate, these leftists are scared of the Mack candidacy and Connie’s message of freedom, security and prosperity. Florida has had enough of the loony left and will bring an end to their big government, big taxation and big spending agenda next November.”
Polls show Mack is the frontrunner in five-person Republican field. At least one survey also shows him with enough current support to knock off Nelson, if Mack wins the GOP primary.
A new Public Policy Polling survey also shows Mack well out front in the Republican contest. It also examines the potency of name identification, but doesn’t attribute all of Mack’s success to having a well-known monicker.
The poll found Mack’s name is recognized by 57 percent of Republican voters in Florida, about double his nearest rival, short-term Senate-appointee George LeMieux. Others in the race were far back.
But the survey also found that voters familiar with the other candidates, still liked Mack best.
“Name recognition is certainly an important part of the equation, but even when you account for that Mack’s well ahead,” PPP concluded. “And he has strong numbers across the ideological lines of the GOP, getting 44 percent with ‘very conservative’ voters, 43 percent with ’somewhat conservative’ ones, and 32 percent with moderates.”
Tarring Democratic opponent Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals”, Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack said Tuesday that Floridians are looking for a change in the U.S. Senate.
“It’s pretty clear to me that this country, our country, is moving in the wrong directions,” Mack said in a conference call with reporters from his Fort Myers hometown.
Mack made his candidacy official Monday night in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox-TV show. Mack, first elected to Congress in 2004, is the fifth Republican in the race to unseat Nelson, who is seeking his third term.
Mack is looking to win the same seat held by his father and namesake, former Republican U.S. Sen. Connie Mack. His dad defeated Democrat Buddy MacKay in 1988 after taunting him with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” And on Tuesday, the political apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Bill Nelson has become one of Barack Obama’s leading guys in the United States Senate,” Mack said, deriding his Democratic rival for supporting the president’s push on health care, stimulus spending, and energy cap-and-trade legislation.
Nelson is among the “lockstep liberals in Washington” the president depends on to advance his agenda, Mack said. The Republican contender, however, disputed that he, like his father, is looking to win by demonizing liberals.
“It’s not an attempt to demonize,” Mack said. “It’s to point out the differences.”
When those close to Mack confirmed a few weeks ago that he was planning to enter the race, the congressman immediately became the favorite, according to polls.
A Quinnipiac University survey earlier this month showed Mack with a formidable lead over the four Republicans already in the race. A Rasmussen Reports poll also showed Mack could be trouble for Nelson, with the congressman favored by 43 percent of voters to 39 percent for the Democrat. The survey of 500 likely voters had a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percent.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will co-host the GOP presidential debate on Fox News this weekend, according to a press release distributed by the Republican Party of Florida this morning.
Bondi, a Fox fave who often appeared on the news channel as a legal analyst before her election in January and a frequent guest star since, will join fellow Republican attorneys general Ken Kuccinelli of Virginia and E. Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s show Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Bondi is leading the charge in the multi-state federal health care lawsuit, launched by her predecessor Bill McCollum, now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Undoing the health care law is among the GOP presidential wannabes’ top campaign pledges.
“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in the press release. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum have all agreed to participate in the forum, according to the release.
Democrats unleashed an attack ad – “Trapped” – targeting Mitt Romney in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama. The movie trailer-style TV ad portrays Romney’s political career as “the story of two men trapped in one body” and directs viewers to a longer, online ad entitled “Mitt v. Mitt”
The ads characterize the former Massachusetts governor “for what he truly is: a flip-flopper, a candidate without core beliefs, and someone who’s simply without conviction,” Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters on a conference call this morning.
“The American people appreciate that there are many different points of view in our diverse nation. That is something that people expect. They just don’t expect one candidate to espouse all of them,” Wasserman Schultz, a Congresswoman from Weston, said.
Democrats are feverishly portraying Romney, in Florida on fundraising sweep tonight and tomorrow, as inconsistent in an effort to peel off support from conservative GOP voters with six weeks until Republicans begin choosing their nominee. They’re targeting Romney although recent polls show Newt Gingrich at the top of the GOP pack.
The DNC ad, showing contradictory clips of Romney on health care and abortion, is running in Albuquerque, N.M., Raleigh, N.C., Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Washington.
“From the creator of `I’m running for office for Pete’s sake,’ comes the story of two men trapped in one body,” the ad says.
The four-minute video, entitled “Mitt versus Mitt,” also includes clips of Romney reversing his positions on issues.
Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin approved Tuesday fellow Democrat Bill Nelson’s request for a congressional hearing in Florida on the state’s new voter law, which critics say is part of a Republican-driven effort to supress voter turnout in next year’s presidential election.
“In a democracy as vibrant as ours, there is perhaps no right that is so sacred or fundamental than the right to vote,” Durbin wrote Nelson. “I am deeply troubled by the disenfranchising impact of these recently passed state voting laws.”
Durbin is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. Durbin said the panel will hold a “field hearing” in the state, examining the impact of the new Florida law and those approved in nearby states.
Nelson wrote Durbin last month, seeking the hearing. He said new voter laws approved in Florida and 13 other Republican-ruled states violate “basic rights.”
Democrats and allied organizations say Republican legislators are trying to reduce turnout by limiting early voting and imposing tighter restrictions on third-party groups that register voters.
The ACLU and other voting rights groups have already sued to stop implementation of the law. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice found the new laws could keep 5 million people from voting next year.
Supporters of the measures deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are intended to reduce voter-fraud.
Critics of the federal health care overhaul supported by President Obama weighed-in Monday, praising the U.S. Supreme Court for agreeing to review the constitutionality of the sweeping measure.
Florida is among 26 states challenging the law, which the National Federation of Independent Business also wants to have overturned.
“I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the States’ challenge to the federal health care law,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has continued to spearhead a lawsuit first brought by her predecessor, fellow Republican Bill McCollum. ”Throughout this case, we have urged swift judicial resolution because of the unprecedented threat that the individual mandate poses to the liberty of Americans simply because they live in this country.”
Justices plan to hear arguments in March. The dispute turns on Congress’s constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.
Timing of the case only reaffirms that the health care overhaul will continue as a central theme of the 2012 presidential election.
”We are hopeful that by June 2012 we will have a decision that protects Americans’ and individuals’ liberties and limits the federal government’s power,” Bondi added. “We look forward to presenting oral argument and defending our position that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, that the entire law fails if one part fails, that the Anti-Injunction Act does not apply, and that Medicaid’s expansion is unlawfully coercive.”
The Obama administration, which earlier asked the Supreme Court to review the legal challenges, said it’s confident the overhaul will be upheld as constitutional.
“ Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, one million more young Americans have health insurance, women are getting mammograms and preventive services without paying an extra penny out of their own pocket and insurance companies have to spend more of your premiums on health care instead of advertising and bonuses,” said Obama spokesman DanPfeiffer. “We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is always at or near the top of Republican presidential polls in Florida and nationwide. Intrade.com puts the chances of Romney winning the GOP nomination at around 70 percent. He’s the only Republican candidate President Obama‘s supporters have invested any significant time in attacking.
But Romney clearly hasn’t closed the deal with much of the Republican Party’s conservative base.
“Romney still has a lot of work to do to get people behind him if he gets the nomination. They might vote for him, but they won’t work for him,” says Brendan Steinhauser of the tea party-aligned conservative group FreedomWorks.
Others say Republican desire to oust Obama will override any misgivings about Romney.
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, has become the instant frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary and runs virtually even with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.
“The entrance of Congressman Connie Mack into the Senate race changes what had been shaping up as an easy reelection for Sen. Bill Nelson into a tough fight that the incumbent could lose,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The fact that Mack is essentially tied with Nelson, who has been a statewide political figure for two decades, should set off warning bells at Democratic headquarters.”
Mack, whose office announced he would enter the race Oct. 26, gets 32 percent of GOP primary support in a poll taken Oct. 31 to Nov. 7. Placing a distant second is former appointed Sen. George LeMieux at 9 percent, followed by businessman Mike McCalister at 6 percent and 2 percent apiece for former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and former restaurant CEO Craig Miller.
And while Floridians are nearly evenly split when asked if they view President Obama favorably or unfavorably (47 percent favorable, 48 percent unfavorable), they are decidedly negative in evaluating his job performance and reelection worthiness.
Only 41 percent of Floridians approve of the way Obama is handling his job, with 52 percent disapproving. And by a 51-to-43 percent margin, Florida voters say Obama does not deserve to be reelected next year.
Gov. Rick Scott‘s gets a 36 percent job-approval rating and a 50 percent disapproval. He’s not on the ballot until 2014.
Asked about the tea party movement, 34 percent of Floridians said they have a favorable view and 40 percent said they have an unfavorable view — a 6-point negative spread.
The Occupy movement was viewed favorably by 30 percent and unfavorably by 39 percent — a 9-point negative spread.
The Republican and Democratic parties and GOP presidential contenders Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are also under water in their favorability ratings. Herman Cain‘s score is barely positive, with 36 percent of Floridians saying they view him favorably and 34 unfavorably.
Quinnipiac University’s latest round of swing-state polling shows a virtual tie in Florida between President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, with the former Massachusetts governor holding a 45-to-42 percent lead that’s within the poll’s 2.9 percent margin of error.
Obama and Romney are virtually tied in Ohio and Pennsylvania as well
Among Republicans, Herman Cain leads the field with 27 percent to Romney’s 21 percent and Newt Gingrich‘s 17 percent. That sample has a 4.3 percent margin of error.
The poll was conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 7 — after accusations of sexual harassment surfaced against Cain.
In a head-to-head matchup with Obama, the president edges Cain by a 45-to-41 percent margin. Obama leads Gingrich 45-to-42 and tops Rick Perry 46-to-40.
The West Palm Beach TV market is one of the locations for a new ad by Republican-allied Crossroads GPS that looks to drive a wedge between President Obama and former President Clinton.
The spot, titled Two Presidents, begins airing today across Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as part of a $2.6 million buy. Crossroads was formed by Republican strategist Karl Rove and former GOP national chairman EdGillespie. It was the biggest outside spender in the 2010 election and plans to pour $240 million into next year’s campaigns against Obama and congressional Democrats.
“President Obama has launched a tax attack on American jobs that hits Main Street businesses, home mortgages, school and road repair funds and even charities,” said Crossroads GPS president and CEO Steven Law. “Former President Clinton and bipartisan majorities in Congress agree that Obama’s tax hikes won’t solve the problem. The ad aims to get Obama to stop attacking and start listening.”
“The Republican Group American Crossroads has used a quote from me in a video opposing President Obama’s jobs plan and the “Buffett Rule.” The advertisement implies that I opposed the “Buffett Rule”. In fact, I support both the American Jobs Act and the “Buffett Rule”. I believe that it’s only fair to ask those of us in high-income groups — who have received the primary benefits of the last decade’s economic growth and the majority of its tax cuts as well — to contribute to solving our long term debt problem. What I did say was that the “Buffett Rule” cannot solve the problem alone.”
Whoever wins the 2012 Republican presidential nomination can carry Florida if he adds Sen. Marco Rubio as his running mate, according to a new poll by Suffolk University in Massachusetts.
The poll of 800 Florida voters has a 3.5 percent margin for error and was conducted Oct. 26-30 — after news stories detailed that Rubio’s Cuban-born parents came to the U.S. before Fidel Castro‘s 1959 takeover rather than afterward, as Rubio’s official Senate biography stated.
In a Rubio-free scenario, the poll found Mitt Romney as the strongest GOP nominee against President Obama in Florida. Obama and Romney tied at 42 percent in a hypothetical matchup. Obama beat Herman Cain by a 42-to-39 percent margin and Rick Perry by a 46-to-34 percent margin.
When respondents were asked to choose between an Obama-Joe Biden ticket and a nameless Republican nominee with Rubio as running mate, the GOP tandem won by a 46-to-41 percent margin.
But an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket would beat a nameless Republican-Rubio ticket by a 46-to-43 percent margin in Florida, the poll says. And Obama and Clinton would win 50-to-41 against a hypothetical GOP ticket without Rubio.
Says Suffolk’s David Paleologos: “In Florida, Marco Rubio is Superman, but Hillary Clinton is the Kryptonite.”
The poll found the GOP presidential primary race virtually tied, with Romney leading Cain by a 25-to-24 percent margin
Biden blamed Bush policies, "obstructionist" Republicans in Congress for economic woes.
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Florida Democrats wrapped up a weekend in which party activists were reminded of President Obama‘s accomplishments and told that a combination of George W. Bush policies and “obstructionist” tea party congressional stances are to blame for America’s economic woes.
Much rhetorical heat was also directed at Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who won’t be on the ballot in 2012 but whose unpopularity, Democrats hope, will be a drag on GOP hopes of winning Florida’s 29 electoral votes.
Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning today asked a court to do away with federal approval of changes to the state’s elections laws in five counties under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, alleging that the that part of the Act is unconstitutional.
Browning also asked a three-judge federal court panel in Washington to expedite its review of four election law changes approved by lawmakers this spring and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott. Browning went to the court in July for approval after initially submitting the new laws to the U.S. Department of Justice for “preclearance,” required for under federal law for five counties – Hendry, Collier, Hardee, Hillsborough and Monroe – with a history of racial discrimination against voters.
The federal law covers the Florida counties as well as six other southern states – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia – Alaska, and counties in North Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, and Idaho.
Under changes to the Voting Rights Act approved by Congress in 1972, the preclearance is required for jurisdictions in which at the time less than 50 percent of the voting-age citizens were registered to vote or voted in the presidential election, had a non-English-speaking population of more than five percent, and provided voting materials only in English.
“I am hopeful the federal court will come to a quick resolution and approve the remaining provisions of our preclearance submission as nondiscriminatory,” Browning said in a statement. “However, I am frustrated that the reason we are still waiting to implement Florida law in five counties is because of an arbitrary and irrational coverage formula based on data from 40 years ago that takes no account of current conditions.”
All changes to the state’s new elections laws must be approved by the Justice Department or by a federal court, a rare move according to elections experts.
Browning asked the court to rule on the new elections laws before the end of the year. If not, that could pose problems for Floridians voting in the GOP primary now slated for Jan. 31 because the five counties would not be operating under the same laws as the rest of the state. State law requires that voting laws be uniform statewide.
Instead of getting federal approval for the four most controversial portions of the state’s new elections laws, Browning went to court, making U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a defendant in the case.
Florida is one of more than a dozen states that passed elections laws this spring that critics object are aimed at keeping low-income, minority and college-student voters – who typically vote for Democrats and helped President Obama win the 2008 presidential election – away from the polls.
The ACLU and others are challenging the new elections laws in federal court in Miami.
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