For some godforsaken reason, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) yesterday — Election Day — handed out emergency food stamps to poor residents devastated by Hurricane Irma. This was the state's second Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) food-stamp handout in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties following Irma, after the first round forced thousands of people to stand in long, sun-baked lines.

Yesterday was hardly better. According to the Miami Herald, more than 11,700 applications had been processed as of Tuesday afternoon, and similar lines formed in Broward. (And today's giveaway was simply for people with last names beginning with the letters A through F.) Reporters who covered the scene at Hard Rock Stadium and the BB&T Center said thousands of people woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to the venues in the hopes of beating the crowds, only to find out that pretty much everyone else had that idea.

The one thing all of those people trapped in food-stamp lines certainly weren't doing was voting. Someone, somewhere, should have bumped the event forward a day....

...Scott has a well-documented history of using natural disasters to suppress voting. He infamously refused to extend voter-registration deadlines last year after Hurricane Matthew hit North Florida, forcing the Florida Democratic Party to sue the administration. Scott is also adamantly opposed to giving Florida felons the right to vote — thanks to laws that prevent felons from heading to the polls, nearly one in four black Florida men cannot vote.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-gave-out-hurricane-irma-food-stamps-on-election-day-9810161