Partisan Republicans Aggressively Seeking To Become Election Officials In Florida

I wonder why they’re aggressively seeking to become election officials in Florida?  Could it be because Romney must win Florida to have a chance at winning the Presidency?

I cannot believe how blatant and desperate Republicans in Florida have been on so many issues, but especially voter suppression…

Think Progress

Republican lawmakers in states like Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin have spent the last several months introducing and, in some cases, passing laws designed to suppress largely Democratic voters ahead of the general election.

Nowhere have these efforts advanced further than in Florida, where Governor Rick Scott has defied the Department of Justice’s order to cease his highly controversial and ineffective voter roll purge, in which hundreds of eligible voters—including many Latinos and self-idenitified Democrats—have been booted from the rolls.

All of this has succeeded in politicizing the most impregnable institution of democracy: elections.

The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Florida reports that election supervisors, long considered dull administrative desk jobs with little to no influence on policy, have become hotly contested jobs, attracting political heavyweights in some counties along the state’s West Coast:

• In Sarasota County, three-term county commissioner Jon Thaxton, a Republican, is challenging supervisor Kathy Dent.

• In Manatee County, state Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton developer known for antagonizing Democrats in Tallahassee, is banking that his decade of name recognition will help him succeed retiring supervisor of elections Bob Sweat.

• In Charlotte County, former four-term county commissioner Adam Cummings is looking to unseat first-term incumbent Paul Stamoulis.

• In Hillsborough County, former state Rep. Rich Gloriso, a Republican, passed up an opportunity to run for the state Senate to instead run for supervisor of elections.

The trend is troubling, and could perhaps signal the next front in an ever-expanding political battlefield. Already, a handful of isolated Election Day incidents—most notably Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ botched 2011 special election in Wisconsin—have stirred controversy.

Related articles

• The hunt for non-citizen Florida voters exposes partisan divide (miamiherald.com)
• Let’s Require People to Vote (newser.com)
• Booming Latino growth could be 2012 tipping point (cnn.com)
• Poll: Most Florida voters support purge, but not Scott (tbo.com)
• Judges hear arguments on Fla. voting law changes (miamiherald.com)
• Pelosi: Attacking Holder part of GOP voter suppression plan (rawstory.com)
• Left girds for voting rights battle (politico.com)