Reacting to Floridians who stood in line for up to eight hours before casting their ballots last year, Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is pushing a measure that would set a national goal of a maximum of a one-hour wait at any polling place during federal elections.

Nelson is co-sponsoring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s “LINE, or Lines Interfere with National Elections act, filed by the California Democrat last year in reaction to long lines in Florida, Virginia and Ohio.

In Palm Beach County, some voters waited more than seven hours at the Lantana Road Branch Library on the last day of early voting.

“In the interest of fairness and to avoid undermining the credibility of our elections, we should be making voting more convenient, not more difficult,” Nelson said in a press release today. “People should not have to stand in line for hours to exercise a basic right, not in a Democracy like ours.”

President Obama is expected to highlight the need to address voting problems in his State of the Union address tonight, where a 102-year-old Florida woman who waited more than three hours to vote will be a guest of the First Lady.

In his inaugural address, the president said: “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”

The Boxer bill would require the U.S. attorney general to issue new national standards by Jan. 1, 2014 regarding the minimum number of voting machines, election workers and other election resources necessary to hold federal elections. And it would require that minimum standards take into account the number of eligible voters, recent voter turnout, the number of new voter registrations, Census data for each polling place and the socio-economic makeup of the voting population.

In 2011, the GOP-dominated legislature shortened the early voting period from 14 to eight days despite long lines in 2008 that prompted then-Gov. Charlie Crist to extend the number of early voting hours. Former GOP officials, including Crist (who is now a Democrat) said the law was intentionally designed to inhibit Democratic turnout in 2012.

Palm Beach County’s Democratic Executive Committee endorsed Alan Clendenin for state party chairman tonight – putting the local party at odds with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sen. Bill Nelson and the county’s congressional delegation.

The county DEC’s endorsement of Clendenin over Allison Tant isn’t binding, but it heaps more pressure on wavering State Committeeman John Ramos, who signed an endorsement of Clendenin on Monday but announced today that he would support Tant.

After tonight’s DEC vote, Ramos said he was torn over how he should vote in the Jan. 26 election for state chairman in Lake Mary.

Ramos and State Committeewoman Bunny Steinman are the only people who will actually cast ballots on behalf of the county in the chairman’s race.

“I would say he’s morally bound (to vote for Clendenin), maybe not legally,” Palm Beach County Democratic Party parliamentarian Ira Raab said after tonight’s vote.

Ramos, who had left the meeting before the vote to endorse Clendenin, was told of the DEC’s action by a reporter and initially sounded unsure of how he’ll respond.

“I’m going to have to seek advice,” Ramos said. “As state committeeman, that’s my job to represent the party. That’s a quandary for me.”

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The two announced candidates for Florida Democratic Party chairman — Hillsborough County Committeeman Alan Clendenin and Leon County Committeewoman Allison Tant — are rolling out big-name endorsements as the Jan. 26 election approaches.

Clendenin and Tant both announced key labor endorsements Tuesday, with Florida AFL-CIO President Mike Williams announcing his support for Clendenin while the Service Employees International Union declared its backing of Tant.

Today, Tant announced the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and nine U.S. House Democrats, including Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and all four members of Palm Beach County’s House delegation — Reps. Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings, Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy.

Clendenin this afternoon unveiled the endorsement of Alex Sink, the party’s 2010 nominee for governor and a potential 2014 candidate. He also has the support of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

Tant and Clendenin are vying to replace Rod Smith, who isn’t seeking reelection as party chairman.

ORLANDO — The Republican Party of Florida unanimously reelected Lenny Curry as chairman this morning without opposition.

The nation’s largest battleground state went to President Barack Obama in November and also delivered an easy victory for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who was once considered a top GOP target. But state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, and other party leaders don’t blame Curry for the disappointments.

“Lenny does a great job. These things were bigger than us. You have to look at the whole national picture,” Baxley said. Gov. Rick Scott, whose 2014 re-election will be the state GOP’s biggest concern over the next two years, also said Curry has done a “great job.”

Curry said he wants Republicans to reclaim the optimism of party icon Ronald Reagan.

“We have allowed someone else to carry our message. There’s now this sort of stigma that the Republican Party is the party of no, the party that doesn’t believe in individuals, the party that dislikes. It’s just not true,” said Curry, who is 42.

“I fell in love with the party of Ronald Reagan when I was a kid. I fell in love with it because it was about morning in America. Those aren’t just words. We lived that…It’s about morning in America and it’s about the shining city on the hill and it’s up to us in this room to not be tagged as the party of no,” Curry said.

Curry also said national soul-searching within the GOP after the 2012 losses shouldn’t be confused with weakness.

“Let’s be very clear and very plain to the critics. The Republican Party, the Republican Party here in the state Florida, is strong,” Curry said. “To the critics I say debate in the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of solutions, which is what we are doing, that’s good and that’s healthy and that demonstrates our commitment to our principles.”

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department should join an investigation into decades-old deaths at North Florida reform school.

Researchers from the University of South Florida have reported they uncovered at least 50 graves sites at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, which was closed in 2011.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement had sought to determine the number of graves in response to years of claims about child-abuse and deaths at the facility. FDLE determined there were only 31 graves, which coincided with state claims that most had died in a fire and influenza outbreak earlier in the last century.

The school was opened from 1900 until last year.

“For the sake of those who died and the family members still living, we’ve got to find out what happened at that school,” Nelson said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.  “I’m asking your department to provide support and assistance to
USF researchers in a broadened search to look for more graves, as well as forensic evidence of possible crimes.  The families deserve closure once and for all.”

Former students at the school went public with allegations of physical and sexual abuse in 2008 and then-Gov. Charlie Crist ordered FDLE to investigate. The agency found that 81 students died at the school over the years and 31 were buried on campus.  But FDLE found no evidence to support abuse allegations.

But last year, USF anthropologists and archeologists began their own investigation into the gravesites.

Researchers uncovered 50 gravesites – 19 more than previously identified by FDLE.  They also determined that more deaths occurred at the school than previously known.  They uncovered 98 deaths of boys between ages 6-18 in the years 1914 through 1973.

The research team released its findings Monday and plans to return to the site in January.

Nelson

Nelson got 55.2 percent in November to defeat Republican Rep. Connie Mack, who according to Rothenberg “raised little money and apparently figured that oozing cockiness was the best way to woo reporters and voters.”

It’s the third time in a row Nelson has been blessed with a “mediocre” Republican foe, Rothenberg says, noting that Nelson beat former Rep. Bill McCollum in 2000 and the Katherine Harris train wreck in 2006.

Democrat Bill Nelson was elected Tuesday to a third term in the U.S. Senate, easily defeating Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV and remaining Florida’s only statewide elected Democratic officeholder.

The Nelson-Mack contest was overshadowed by the presidential race in Florida, butstill included $39.3 million in spending on both sides. Nelson said his victory showed Floridians wanted a centrist willing to work across the aisle in starkly divided Washington.

“We have a lot to do now,” Nelson told several hundred supporters gathered at a downtown Orlando hotel. “We have to bring this country together.”

Nelson also reached out to his opponent, the namesake son of the two-term Republican senator he succeeded in 2001.

“Connie Mack is my opponent, not my enemy,” Nelson said.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said Nelson’s win was testament to his style over a 40-year career in office, beginning with his election to the state House in 1972.

“Sen. Nelson has stood up for the values that make our state great,” Smith said.

NBC-News is projecting that Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has won a third term, easily defeating Republican Connie Mack IV.

Early returns showed Nelson holding a comfortable, 15 percentage point lead over Mack, a four-term congressmann from Fort Myers.

At a downtown Orlando hotel, where Nelson’s victory party is being held, the candidate has not made an appearance. But with each passing TV report, broadcast on jumbotrons in a hotel ballroom, the crowd roared.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith sent out an email congratulating Nelson less than 15 minutes after the last polls closed in the Panhandle.

“On behalf of Florida Democrats, I wish Senator Bill Nelson congratulations on his reelection,” Smith said.  “Sen. Nelson has and will continue to serve our state and country with the highest level of distinction. Throughout this campaign and his entire career in public service, Sen. Nelson has stood up for the values that make our state great. He is a true champion for middle class families and a passionate advocate for our state. He has delivered for the people of Florida, and tonight they have
delivered him a decisive victory.”

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson added his voice Saturday to a chorus of Democrats urging Republican Gov. Rick Scott to extend early voting hours, scheduled to end later in the day.

Long lines at polling places were still being reported around the state — with waits topping an hour common. Scott has already dismissed calls from Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith and others to push the early voting deadline past 7 p.m. Saturday.

“You should be doing everything in your power to make sure everybody has the chance to vote, and that their vote is counted,” Nelson said in a letter Saturday to Scott. “Instead, Gov. Scott, you are allowing people to be turned away and jeopardizing the credibility of Florida’s election.”

Surveys show the presidential race in Florida is tight, with Republican Mitt Romney likely holding a narrow lead. Republican leaders say Nelson’s opponent, Fort Myers U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, could be lifted to victory by a strong GOP turnout, overcoming polls that show him trailing by an average 6.7 percentage points heading into the campaign’s final weekend.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Florida too close to call, with President Obama leading Mitt Romney by a 48-to-47 percent margin that is within the survey’s 3 percent margin of error.

The results of the Oct. 23-28 poll compare to a 9-point Obama lead in late September.

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson leads Republican challenger Connie Mack by a 52-t0-39 percent margin in the poll.

Quinnipiac released the poll as part of a swing-state package that also shows Obama with a 50-to-45 percent lead in Ohio and a 49-to-47 percent lead in Virginia.

With the Northeast digging out from Hurricane Sandy, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson paused Tuesday to send out a fund-raising email for the American Red Cross.

“One days like today, it’s crucial we put politics aside and come together as Americans,” Nelson said in a message to supporters with a link to the Red Cross site.

Nelson as been portraying himself as a centrist, tired of the Washington gridlock, in his re-election fight with Republican Connie Mack.

He’s already campaigned in usually reliable Republican areas like the Florida Panhandle. And on Halloween, Nelson plans to continue working GOP turf — with a lunchtime appearance planned at Miami’s Versailles Restaurant, a must-stop on the Florida political itinerary for Republicans, but rarely a Democratic detour.

Mack is planning three stops Wednesday with Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who will be campaigning in Florida with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Although most public polls show Republican Connie Mack trailing in Florida’s U.S. Senate race, the underdog’s campaign manager made a bold and very precise prediction Tuesday:

Mack will win. By 1.4 percent.

“Virtually every public poll shows that the race between Connie Mack and Bill Nelson has remained close and is now too close to call,” said the Mack campaign’s Jeff Cohen. “Our own campaign’s internal data shows very similar and even stronger trends.”

Cohen said those in the campaign “are absolutely confident that Connie Mack will win by 1.4 percent and will be Florida’s next U.S. senator.”

Republican Connie Mack will vote Tuesday in his Fort Myers hometown before moving on to meet supporters in Polk County at a Republican headquarters as Florida’s U.S. Senate race enters its final week.

Mack spent Saturday campaigning across the state with Mitt Romney and will do a similar tour again Wednesday when the Republican presidential candidate returns and is joined by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Mack, a four-term congressman, is looking to join Rubio in the Senate – a move that would mark the first time Florida has had two Republican senators since 1875. But another number stands in Mack’s way right now — and that’s the average 6 percent in polls that he is trailing two-term incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson as the race hits the homestretch.

Mack has lashed his candidacy to that of Romney, hoping that the presidential contender’s improving fortunes in Florida will lift the entire ticket. Many analysts, however, have the Florida Senate race listed as ranging from ‘leaning’ to ‘safe’ Democratic.

Democrat  Bill Nelson visited family gravesites Tuesday and reminisced about his bonds to rural North Florida in campaign stops steeped in the past but designed to assure his future in Washington.

The two-term U.S. senator, who polls show holds a comfortable lead over Republican Connie Mack IV, is appealing to conservative voters across a stretch of Florida his rival must win big.

Nelson, whose ancestors farmed here in Chipley beginning in 1829, is looking for help from voters who usually lean Republican – a crossover move now increasingly important as GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney gains strength in Florida.

“I have always gotten a healthy slice of Republicans that look at me as ‘me,’’ Nelson said. “Not as a partisan label. Same thing with independents…in bipartisan consensus building, I’ve been able to pass some things.”

Nelson stood in a Baptist church cemetery where three generations of his family are buried. While he spoke before a few family members, friends and reporters, roosters crowed in the distance on an otherwise quiet, sunlit autumn morning.

Two weeks from Election Day, the Democrat said he is confident President Obama will regain his lead in Florida.

But in a campaign swing that began Monday in Pensacola and continued across country roadsides dotted with Romney signs, Nelson didn’t mention Obama’s name, instead playing up his own strength as a centrist, consensus-builder.

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