Florida's Endless Ballot

[jsmirman]

I assume other people caught this story on Rachel's show last night?

Any news stories out there on this? Any local color?

The sum of it is that Florida's ballots are going to be absurdly long - apparently ten pages worth of printed out gobbledegook that you have to laboriously fill out and then feed into the scanners, page by page.

I'll give them this - the Republicans have no good ideas about how to reduce our deficit or how to actually create jobs or how to deal with immigration issues, or really, much of anything, but damn, they are some creative ******** when it comes to ways to suppress the vote.

Ten page ballot = everyone takes forever to fill the ballot out = endless lines to vote and less people pushed through the early voting turnstiles during available early voting hours = the Republicans' hope that as many people as possible will give up.

Any clever thoughts for how to prepare voters?

Anyone with knowledge of the ballot Florida voters are going to have to deal with? Yes, really cool of them - in a place where a legendarily unclear ballot led to an electoral disaster, let's see if we can push something worse. Come on, Republicans are just the most Un-American ******** one can imagine.

Are the candidate selections at the top? Is there an easy pattern to suggest for the ballot initiatives? Is there anyway to court challenge something that is punitively expensive to mail back (if you have an absentee ballot)?

Doesn't this amount to a poll tax (the mail-backs) and a secret, illegal literacy test? With Florida being one of the places that is suppression central, aren't these violations of the Voting Rights Act?

What can be done?

And Dan Rather has his head so far up his rear last night as to talk about, "oh, campaigns should be above board, elevate the discourse, blah blah" get bent. How are you going to have a campaign of decency against ratfuckers like this who are so transparently willing to assault the most American of rights - the right to VOTE?

There is no low that party will not plumb. I'm not disgusted in a politically expedient way. I'm just disgusted with them. Once again.

That should be a platform plank for them: "if all the votes are counted, we lose."

[HockeyMom]

1. I haven't gotten my Absentee Ballot in the mail yet

I requested it online about a month ago. The site said it will take about 2 or 3 weeks. It is starting to worry me. I am leaving the state on October 20th, but will be back 2 days before the election. However, if I try to vote in person instead, I MUST bring that ballot with me to the polls, or I will not be able to vote.

So if I don't get that ballot in the mail, either way, I cannot vote. Is this their PLAN? They can say "we mailed it". How do I PROVE that I never got it? If I don't get it, ONE LESS VOTE.

[jsmirman]

3. CALL your local board of elections

and if you don't get satisfaction, call the local Obama campaign office - believe me, they will help you.

[wilt the stilt]

2. I actually don't think you have to vote for any of these

amendments. There is no requirement that you have to vote for everything on a ballot.

[RockaFowler]

4. It's the ammendments that make the ballot so long

Everything is in legalese so it's impossible to understand.

I remember a few years back that we voted for a Bullet Train here in Florida. Where the heck is it??

The Repukes do this all the time to us in Florida. Put something on the ballot and forget about it in a few weeks.

[jsmirman]

5. That's what also scares me!

I'd like to know what the hell they have you voting on!

The whole thing just smacks of dirty, filthy games and a party that loves it when people can't exercise their electoral desire at the polls.

They have a name for people like that.