Mike Bennett Still Hearts Voter Suppression

Mike Bennett, Supervisor of Elections, for Manatee County, and Republican commissioners has eliminated voting locations. It will comes as no surprise the the majority of voting stations were eliminated in a Democratic leaning district.

Democratic County Commissioner Michael Gallen's District 2, which includes most of Palmetto and central/east Bradenton, has the largest percentage of closed polling places.

"I do have concerns about the closings of the precincts, especially in District 2, where 50 percent will be closed," said Gallen.

During his time in the Florida Senate, Bennett publicly advocated for making voting more difficult. Bennett also brought up a racial component by mentioning "Africans."

“Do you read the stories about the people in Africa? The people in the desert, who literally walk two and three hundred miles so they can have the opportunity to do what we do, and we want to make it more convenient? How much more convenient do you want to make it?” he said. “Do we want to go to their house? Take the polling booth with us?”

“This is a hard-fought privilege,” he added. “This is something people die for. You want to make it convenient? The guy who died to give you that right, it was not convenient. Why would we make it any easier? I want ‘em to fight for it. I want ‘em to know what it’s like. I want them to go down there, and have to walk across town to go over and vote,” he said.

We might want to make voting easier because we are America. For the record: Politifact ruled that Bennett's statement that Africans have to "walk two and three hundred miles" to vote is a pants on fire lie. Bennett vows to ad more voting sites if there are long lines during the 2014 election. I'm not counting on it.