Why Can't Florida Run Elections?

The Tallahassee Democrat reports over 43,000 Florida voter registration forms were rejected since 2006.

More than 14,000 initially rejected — three-fourths of them minorities — didn't make it through that last set of hoops.

African-Americans were 6.5 times more likely than whites to be rejected at that step.

Hispanics were 7.2 times more likely to be failed.

The Florida legislature made more stringent election laws in 2005. Social Security numbers and driver licences are checked with the state database. Potential voters are given two days to correct application errors or they are disqualified from voting. The reforms were approved by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Department.

The state is suppose to send notices to citizens that their voting applications have been rejected. Many never got a letter.

Jill Sapir was certain her voter registration would go through, since she filled it out at the Department of Highways and Motor Vehicles office in Tallahassee while getting her driver's license. She even remembers a supervisor reminding the clerk to make sure the form was complete.

That was seven months ago. Sapir said she has received no notice from the state nor from Leon County. "I actually thought it was just a singular screw-up, but obviously it's not the only one (they've) messed up," she said.

Also in the dark was Gulf Breeze resident Justin White, who registered to vote when he turned 18 — more than a year ago. "Aren't they supposed to send you something?" he asked, when told his card remained incomplete. White's current address was wrong, but the telephone number he supplied on his application reached him.

Republicans say government doesn't work. They are showing that by the handling of voting and election matters. Angry Connecticutt transplant Michael Plummer summed it up best.

"I know I'm in the South down here, you people aren't the sharpest pencil in the box," he said. "It's no wonder Bush won the election."

Indeed.

Update: Erin Ferns's post illustrates that Republicans use Social Security card and driver's licence requirements for voter suppresion. The databases matches new voters with long deleted voters with similar names. The new voter is disqualified for matching the name of another person no longer on the rolls. Another problem is different databases don't match up perfectly.

Sample points out, "The Social Security Administration admits that 46.2 percent of submitted voter registration records fail to match its records."

Florida has it's own database problems. I was told by Motor Vehicle that I was not in the database. I have lived and drove in the state since 1987. It's easy for me to believe that the state can screw up the databases.

The most rapid Republican wouldn't say that 46.2 percent of American voters are committing fraud.

The Republican goal is to make people jump through so many hoops that they give up and don't vote. The poor and minorities have less time and resources to deal with the endless roadblocks posed by the current registration laws. And they aren't a voting demographic Republicans are seeking.