Voter Suppression: Don't Take My Word For It

It may interest you to know that Jim Greer, the disgraced former head of the Republican Party of Florida, has confessed to Republican voter suppression, in brutally honest terms.

Greer testified under oath that Republican leaders held meetings to discuss ways that they could suppress the African-American vote. As Greer put it: “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting. It had been [another] one of those days.” Greer also testified that Republican Party officials said that “minority outreach programs were not fit for the Republican Party.”

This really is no surprise. According to one group suing Florida Governor Scott for voter suppression, 87% of the Florida voters whom Scott has struck from the voter rolls belong to minorities. In the Bush v. Gore election in 2000, 54% of the voters that Bush’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, purged from the voter rolls were African-American, even though only 15% of Florida’s population was African-American.

Here’s more: Jim Greer described many Florida Republican leaders as “whack-a-do right-wing crazies.” He said that Florida Republican leaders decided to get rid of him, and former Governor Charlie Crist, because Crist endorsed John McCain rather than an extreme right-winger in the 2008 Presidential Primary, and because Crist appointed an African-American to the Florida Supreme Court.

Greer also testified that Republican legislative leaders covered up the fact that they used Republican Party credit cards “like drunken sailors,” to pay for millions of dollars in personal expenses. As Gov. Crist had pointed out earlier, one of them was Sen. Marco Rubio, who put more than $100,000 on his Republican Party credit card – including a back wax.

Look, you don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to Jim Greer. Voter suppression is alive and well in Florida, and it could steal the 2012 election from Democrats – again.

In our district, we have a simple plan to fight voter suppression. We are going to sign up as many Democrats as we can to vote by mail. They will get their ballots almost a month before the election. If there are any voter suppression “problems” for those voters, there will be plenty of time to work them out.

We go door-to-door to Democrats in our district, signing them up to vote by mail. They will help President Obama win Florida. They will help Sen. Nelson keep the U.S. Senate for Democrats. They will help Democrats in county and municipal races. And . . .

They will help us win our race.

Going door-to-door, it costs us around $5 to collect each absentee ballot request. Those absentee ballots get mailed out in three weeks. Which means that we need your help today. Please contribute to our “Fight Voter Suppression Fund” today.

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/fightvotersuppression