Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Activist groups rally to get tens of thousands registered to vote before Florida deadline
Posted by Mitch Perry on Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 3:04 PM
Gihan Perera is with the group Florida New Majority. He cited a New York Times story from March that claimed new voter registrations were down by more than 81,000 people, with a provision of HR 1355 being the culprit. He said in May the deficit was still 64,000.
He said since then his organization and other groups have made "huge inroads," and will have close to 50,000 new registered voters by next Tuesday's deadline.
The provision of the elections bill that scared off groups like the League of Women Voters was a financial penalty for not returning the voter registration forms within 48 hours, opposed to two weeks.
The law was passed by the Republican-led Legislature in 2011, but it's been a third-party group — Strategic Allied Consulting, which is getting paid by the Republican Party of Florida to acquire new registrations — that has been making headlines the past week with reports of its employees turning in faulty registrations.
Kathy Bird is the civic engagement director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. She said Strategic Allied Consulting has been reaching out to people in the Latino, Haitian and Brazilian communities in Broward County, as well as signing up voters in "rural municipalities in Central Florida."
Bishop Victor T. Curry is one of Miami's most influential leaders in the African-American community. As president of the National Action Network, he said he's been meeting with members of other churches, unions and civic organizations to ensure that their members get registered and vote early.
Referring to last year's elections reform bill and the purge of noncitizens being enacted upon by Gov. Scott, Curry said, "we've been absolutely appalled at the governor and the Republican-led House and Senate, that they would infringe on the voting rights of all the citizens of the state of Florida."
He said he calls his plan to get people in the black community registered, "Operation Lemonade."
"They have given us a lemon. We have decided to make lemonade."
Monica Russo with the Service Employees International Union refused to worry about the reduction of early voting days, mentioning how in the 2000 presidential election in Florida there were no early voting days.
Latest in Daily Loaf
-
Jamie Dimon easily survives vote to split his duties at JPMorgan Chase shareholder meeting in Tampa
Dimon came close last year to losing one of his jobs, but this year his supporters were such cheerleaders they might as well have been wearing pom-poms.
-
Environmental Activist Bill McKibben speaks at Eckerd College's 2013 Graduation
Journalist, educator and environmental activist Bill McKibben delivers commencement address at 2013 Eckerd College Graduation. McKibben discusses the impact of climate change on Florida.
-
"It's Monsoon season, bitches!" The CL interview with RuPaul's Drag Race winner, Jinkx Monsoon
Get your rubbers ready. The Monsoon's about to hit.
- More »
More by Mitch Perry
-
Integrity Florida hails ethics reform bills passed in Florida Legislature
Other watchdog groups aren't as enthusiastic about the new ethics bills.
-
Les Miller believes the government can help reduce gun violence
Miller said gun laws can do some good.
- More »
