AhimsaApr 5, 2023

"Florida Senate Committee Advances Elections Bill Restricting Voting and Criminalizing Elections"

"The bill requires all first-time voters without a Florida ID or social security number to vote in-person. Previously, these voters could vote by mail — a method over two millions Floridians utilized in 2022 …"

Voter suppression! 😠

Many thanks to @marcelias / @democracydocket for reporting on this ❤️

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/florida-senate-committee-advances-elections-bill-restricting-voting-and-criminalizing-elections/

#USPol #USPolitics #Elections #VoterSuppression

Florida Senate Committee Advances Elections Bill Restricting Voting and Criminalizing Elections

Read more here.

Democracy Docket
Show threadSriram "sri" Ramkrishna - 😼

@ahimsa_pdx @marcelias @democracydocket

I'm not sure that's the slam dunk they think it is. Aren't most of the folks coming into Florida, conservative old folks?

Apr 5, 2023 at 4:25amWeb
Show threadkwhApr 5, 2023
@sri @ahimsa_pdx @democracydocket @marcelias I think they could be cueing up additional forms of suppression. For example they might term felons with rights restored “first time” voters technically, or other categories, and then they can use pretexts to cancel mail in ballots they don’t like, because the person was somehow disqualified from mail in balloting.
Show threadkwhApr 5, 2023
@sri @ahimsa_pdx @democracydocket @marcelias this should be properly viewed as creating two “classes” of enfranchised voters, ones who “qualify” for convenient mail in balloting and ones who must do the duty of coming on the appointed day.
Show threadkwhApr 5, 2023
@democracydocket @sri @ahimsa_pdx @marcelias note: I said all of that and now finally read the bill and holy shit, that’s 100% suppression that has a lot of stuff at odds with VRA/HAVA. That is a straight up fascist “you get to vote if we feel like allowing you” bill that creates new sweeping powers without accountability.
Show threadSriram "sri" Ramkrishna - 😼Apr 5, 2023

@kwh561 @democracydocket @ahimsa_pdx @marcelias

I don't think it will hold up to a legal challenge. You're creating classes of voters and then disfranchising them. It's straight up discrimination. The next step will just be landowners. The thing is you can't take away the right to vote from a citizen.

Show threadkwhApr 6, 2023
@ahimsa_pdx @marcelias @sri @democracydocket this is brought to you by the state that did “caging” 20 years ago and knowingly asked vendors to minimize the accuracy of felon name-matching algorithms to maximize the number of people accidentally removed.
Show threadkwhApr 6, 2023
@ahimsa_pdx @marcelias @sri @democracydocket we do need a legitimate discussion about the “right” of voting because, though described by a right it is a right whose exercise is contingent on any number of arbitrary provisions of local law, and unlike the 2nd it does not have a corporate sponsor to defend it.
Show threadkwhApr 6, 2023
@ahimsa_pdx @marcelias @sri @democracydocket the constitution says it can’t be denied for age, sex, condition of servitude or poll tax but it can be denied for any number of “hoop-jumping” failures, and the only check on a hostile incumbency is that they have to make the hoop jumping more convenient for favored voters than unfavored