What was the rationale in Florida and Ohio for reducing the number of early voting days?

[Anonymous]

I recently read an article about how black churches in Florida are dealing with the state's elimination of early voting on the Sunday before election day. Apparently, the churches have been running a very successful "Souls to the Polls" program in recent years to encourage congregants to go vote after Sunday service. So for this election, Governor Rick Scott and the Republicans in Florida's government eliminated early voting on the Sunday before election day. A similar situation occurred in Ohio.

Now, I'm not completely naive. I fully understand that the Republican party in Florida and Ohio likely eliminated these early voting days to suppress black turnout. However, I'm supposing they at least had some "cover story" to justify the move -- maybe saving state money by reducing the days when polls are open, or something like that. Does anyone here know what their stated justification was?

I searched online, and found many articles discussing the situation, but none said why the state governments reduced the voting days. Does anyone know?

BTW, I'm seriously curious, so I'd appreciate real responses, and not political jabs from either side. There are plenty of other threads for those. Many thanks.

[Anonymous]

I reside in Palm Beach County and the newspapers all had pictures of the the chruck buses and long lines of black voters at the polling places.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth do we even need early voting?

People should vote on election day, not election month.

If you can't make it that day, send in an absentee ballot.

If it is important enough, you will find a way to vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do we even need early voting?

People should vote on election day, not election month.

If you can't make it that day, send in an absentee ballot.

If it is important enough, you will find a way to vote.

Insulated moron.

[Freeman]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do we even need early voting?

People should vote on election day, not election month.

If you can't make it that day, send in an absentee ballot.

If it is important enough, you will find a way to vote.

For most heavily-populated areas, it is simply about the number of people voting. When everyone was voting on the same day, it meant larger crowds, long waits, etc. It also disproportionately affected poorer people, since they often literally could not afford to miss work to go vote.(What's more important, voting or paying the rent?) It also benefits senior citizens(Less time standing in line, more assistance available, easier to arrange transportation from nursing homes and assisted living facilities, etc.) as well as other groups that work to provide transportation to voters. Absentee ballots are the biggest source of voter fraud, so I don't think expanding their use is a good idea. In fact, I think that with the increase in early voting opportunities, absentee ballots should be much more restricted than they currently are. I don't see any logical justification for only allowing voting on one arbitrary day. There are multiple benefits to allowing early voting, which I think more than outweigh the costs.

As for the rationale for reducing them, the most frequent one I've seen is to give time for local election boards to prepare for the election. However, I think these types of decisions had been made at the local levels for years, allowing each election board to decide when they would be open for early voting, and it was only recently that the states decided to impose rules on when they could and could be open. I haven't seen any good justification as to why some states felt the need to take control of what had been decided locally.(Which makes sense, given the different situations local boards will face)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do we even need early voting?

People should vote on election day, not election month.

If you can't make it that day, send in an absentee ballot.

If it is important enough, you will find a way to vote.

1. You can't absentee vote unless you have a valid excuse.
2. But if you are an hourly worker or a single parent, you may not know your schedule ahead of time in order to absentee vote.

So early voting lets people with unpredictable schedules vote when they have the time and get it out of the way.

I think the question to you is, why on earth would anyone object to giving people more chances to vote? This is the 21st century, it's not that hard anymore.

[Anonymous]

I started this thread, so I was interested to read this item from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/11/26/ex-florida-gop-leaders-party-aimed-to-suppress-vote/

Two former Florida GOP leaders told the Palm Beach Post that a new election law in the state that curbed early voting was designed by Republicans to limit Democratic turnout. ... Concerns about voter fraud, he said, were a “marketing ploy.”

[Anonymous]

BTW, the Palm Beach Post article cited by Washington Post is much more detailed, and quite interesting. Highly recommended. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/