Here is what Gov. Rick Scott recently said, during an interview with CNN about Florida’s elections: “We need to have bipartisan legislation that deals with three issues. One, the length of our ballot. Two, we’ve got to allow our supervisors more flexibility in the size of their polling locations and, three, the number of days we have. We’ve got to look back at the number of days of early voting we had.” We couldn’t have said it better. In fact, Herald-Tribune editorials focused on the 2012 general election have emphasized those same three points.
Democrats pounced on Scott’s statement, which reversed his previous defense of Florida’s election laws, which were substantially revised in 2011 and signed by the governor. “It’s bordering on an alternative reality,” said former state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. “He and his colleagues in the Legislature created precisely what happened.” Indeed, they did.
But, whatever the reason for Scott’s change of heart, Democrats and independents should seize this opportunity to lobby the Legislature for three-point change.
Fortunately, the Legislature’s new Republican leaders have already created an opportunity for reform. Senate President Don Gaetz opened the Legislature’s organization session last month by declaring that he and House Speaker Will Weatherford agree: “Floridians should never again have to stand in lines for six and seven hours to vote.”
Full Article: Three-step election reform | HeraldTribune.com.