• The NAACP's Adora Obi Nweze

Republicans in the Florida Legislature who passed the law last year said it was needed to prevent voter fraud.

On Friday it was the subject of a nearly two-hour federal hearing in Tampa hosted by Democratic Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. They heard testimony from seven panelists, all but one of whom spoke critically of the legislation. A jam-packed Hillsborough County courthouse was the site of the hearing, with an overflow crowd of another couple hundred watching via closed circuit television on the same floor.

The most powerful critic might have been Ann McFall, the supervisor of elections in Volusia County who is stepping down from office at the end of this year. The bill was passed by state Republicans in Tallahassee and is vehemently opposed by Democrats; McFall is a Republican.

Among the provisions in the new law is one that reduces the early voting days from 14 to 8. Legislators have said this would help local supervisors of elections save money, but McFall said just the opposite would happen. Some workers' 40-hour weeks would now have to be expanded, she said, requiring that they be paid overtime — a cost that would be picked up by taxpayers.

She said that SOE's should be making early voting more convenient, not less, allowing them to vote at community centers, college campuses, YMCA's, malls, churches and storefronts.

University of Florida Political Science Professor Dan Smith provided detailed information from a study of early voting statistics from 2008 in Florida that he compiled with Dartmouth College Professor Michael C. Herron. He reported that the number of black and Latino voters increased dramatically on the Sunday before the general election. Under the new law, there is now no early voting on Sundays.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the bill's two sponsors — Miami Senator Miguel de la Portilla and Ocala Representative Dennis Baxley — as well as Lakeland legislators Paula Dockery and Seth McKeel are fighting a request to be deposed by activist groups suing to overturn the law.
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The Sentinel quotes Senator de la Portilla as saying "Our general counsel has advised us when we have litigation going, don't comment to the media. Having said that, I don't care to comment any more on the issue of discovery or depositions, or this, that or the other."

Mitt Romney got the best of Newt Gingrich in last night's CNN debate from Jacksonville, and the question remaining for the next four days of the presidential campaign in Florida is: Can Newt recover by Tuesday?

Thursday began horribly for Gingrich, and never got better. Plastered on the front screen of the Drudge Report were all types of links to stories about Republicans from the ’80s and ’90s getting in their punches against the former House Speaker.

Bob Dole, Tom DeLay and Elliot Abrams were among those who trashed Gingrich in statements, with the latter trying to destroy the idea that Gingrich is truly a "Reagan conservative," the phrase he has used interminably throughout the campaign.

And then there was the debate itself, where Romney made sure to pack the University of North Florida’s Lazzara Performance Hall with supporters, neutralizing the advantage that Gingrich had in South Carolina when he was firing broadsides at the media and the "Massachusetts moderate."

Although undoubtedly Romney won the debate, he had his embarrassing moments, such as when moderator Wolf Blitzer busted him on not knowing the content of one of his own ads — an ad with a tagline that said "I'm Mitt Romney, and I approve this ad."