Posted With Comment: Rick "F-ck The State" Scott Is Gonna Try To Purge Voters AGAIN

When the Supreme Court killed off the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act, I kinda knew this was coming:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott will resume the state’s purge of suspected non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls, now that a Supreme Court decision striking down a key part of the Voting Rights Act has cleared the way...

From Reuters:

...Advocacy groups called the review of non-citizens a thinly veiled attempt to disqualify Hispanic and African-American voters, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates. A disproportionately large number of those identified in 2012 were either Hispanic or black, the groups said.

Last year, Florida officials said they had drawn up an initial list of 182,000 potential non-citizens. But that number was reduced to fewer than 200 after election officials acknowledged errors on the original list. (Personal NOTE: they still can't prove there was any large-scale wave of non-citizens actually voting.  I think they caught one Canadian trying to vote, that was it.  Not exactly an army of illegals from Mexico, is it).

In identifying potential non-citizens, Florida officials sent their information to county election supervisors who then mailed letters to voters requesting proof they were U.S. citizens. If no response was received, the voter was dropped from the rolls.The effort, which angered some county election supervisors (NOTE: I'm pretty sure some of them are still pissed), was the subject of lawsuits from five voter protection groups and at least two individual plaintiffs.

Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he expected many county election supervisors to press the state to offer precise documentation that a voter may not be a U.S. citizen in any forthcoming review.

"If it will be a fairer process this time, it will be because the County Supervisors of Elections got burned last time and are more skeptical now," he said.

I've written about the need to make voting easier in our state (hell, our nation), above all by making sure EVERYONE gets the right to vote.  These voter purges do the exact opposite: they make it harder for people, especially the poor who can't afford photo IDs and tend to move often, making prolonged residency to establish a voting precinct an issue.  But then again, that's pretty much the only way Republicans have left themselves to be certain they can win any more elections.  As the demographics turn against them, as their open hostility to women's rights and minorities worsen, as the party is starting to lose more of their base to old age, the Republicans are pretty much stuck with "cheating" as their primary method.

For a Party that's obsessed with the idea that their platform of God, Guns, and Tax Cuts is "beloved by all true Americans", the Republicans do a shitty job of selling that platform to all actual Americans when the time comes and rely more on mudslinging and false advertising to win elections.  And now, denying hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans their civic right to vote.