When pigs fly. Florida’s suit about voter disenfranchisement

[flashl]

And, when the Flying Spaghetti Monster attacks Florida.

Florida Democrats file suit against DNC, cite voter disenfranchisement

Comparing their fight to a family squabble, Florida's top congressional Democrats dismissed the idea that their lawsuit against their own party will hurt the state's chances of delivering a victory to their eventual presidential nominee.

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After threatening legal action for weeks, Hastings and Sen. Bill Nelson filed suit Thursday against the Democratic National Committee over their state's right to help pick a presidential candidate.

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In their lawsuit, the two lawmakers accuse the DNC and its chairman, Howard Dean, of violating the Constitution, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects voters from racial discrimination. The lawsuit argues that the DNC's penalty will disproportionately affect Florida's black voters, most of whom are Democrats.

''For the DNC to say to the fourth largest contingency of Democrats in the nation that their votes will not matter in next year's presidential primary is not only shocking and ironic, but we believe is illegal,'' Hastings said during a Capitol Hill news conference.

Yet, Florida's defenders of voters rights have been silent about their constituents lawsuit:

Lawsuit calls voter-registration law unfair

Claiming that a 2-year-old voter registration law will unfairly block minorities, including Hispanics, from registering to vote, the Florida branch of the NAACP and a Miami-based Haitian group filed a federal lawsuit Monday that seeks to throw the law out.

Florida law requires that a citizen's name on a voter registration form be matched with a Social Security number or driver's license number. Florida legislators made the change to comply with the Help America Vote Act.

Florida used HAVA and campaigned to push the (self-voting) touch screen voting machines in minority polling precincts.

Duval County's voter caging scandal

The case centers on e-mails that have come to light since the congressional investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys. Contained in some of them, Kennnedy and Whitehouse contend, is proof some Jacksonville voters were targeted for voter caging by Tim Griffin, then working for the Republican National Committee and later appointed as a replacement U.S. attorney in Arkansas. Griffin has denied the allegations.

Or, what about this litte jewel:

The Department of Justice's Voting Section pressuring states to purge voter rolls before the 2008 election under an arcane provision in the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the Motor Voter law.

[madfloridian]

1. Supreme Court to hear photo ID law in January. Not sure if FL is one of them.

http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2007/09/voter_id_case_to_be_decided_be.php

"It's not too difficult to guess which party appointed which judge. Election law experts frequently point out that the voter ID debate has startlingly little to do with facts. Part of the reason is voter ID laws are a fairly new phenomenon, arising in part because of the 2000 Florida disaster and in part as a reaction to rapidly changing voter demographics. Election fraud, the frequent rallying cry of Republicans, is designed to keep blacks and other minorities traditionally affiliated with Democrats off the rolls, Democrats contend. The mostly GOP effort to keep ex-cons from voting seems to bolster this suspicion.

Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio and South Dakota have statutes requiring or requesting photo ID. With the exception of maybe Hawaii and Ohio, these states have swelling black and Latino populations. Opponents of voter ID laws frequently cite evidence, much of it anecdotal, that Spanish-speaking, Native American and other minority voters are turned away or warned not to show up without photo ID. (Georgia's law is headed for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but of course is bound to whatever the Supremes decide.)"

[flashl]

2. There are several voter id initiatives in heated debate across the U.S.

I suspect voter id laws conjures up visions of Hans Von Spakovsky a current nominee to oversee "fair" elections at the FEC.