In the wake of Florida’s Nov. 6 election fiasco, Republican state legislators and Gov. Rick Scott acknowledge the massive election reform law they passed amid partisan controversy two years ago needs to be revised. Scott, who signed the new rules into law and initially defended the conduct of the Nov. 6 voting, has since said Floridians “are frustrated” and the state needs “bipartisan legislation … to restore confidence in our elections.” Republican legislative leaders who solidly backed the election reform bill two years ago now say it needs revisiting. “The only 10 laws that were divinely inspired and could never need any amendment came down from the mountain with Moses,” said state Senate President Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican.
Still open to question is what parts of the law the GOP legislators are willing to change, and by how much.
Though acknowledging change is needed, they also suggest some of the blame for Election Day problems falls on local elections supervisors where the worst problems occurred — most of them Democrats — by pointing out that most counties had few problems.
They also continue to deny that the law, known as House Bill 1355, was aimed at suppressing voting by minorities, youths and women, as Democrats contend, despite new evidence from court testimony showing the bill was produced at the request of state Republican Party political operatives.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” House Speaker Will Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican, said of the voter suppression charge.
“I certainly had no intention, and I don’t think any of my colleagues had any intention, of suppressing any vote. We didn’t suppress the vote — the turnout was quite large.”
Full Article: Florida Republicans rethinking election law | TBO.com.