Great story the governor tells about turning up at the polls dead. You might think that would win a few hearts and minds for the guy.
But no, not among media southpaws.
Liberal journalists across the country still see grave danger for unsuspecting disenfranchised voters in Florida.
On Friday, for example, Dashiell Bennett, reporting on the story for the Atlantic Wire, opined that, OK, getting thrown off the voting rolls isn't the end of the world, but Gov. Rick Scott's story just proves how easy it is for a perfectly legal voter to get "turned away at the door."
It does? Is that what it proves? I must have missed something. I thought it proved how easy it was for a victimized legal voter to cast a ballot and get it counted.
Furthermore, Bennett concludes, "That's part of the reason why the (U.S.) Justice Department is suing the state ..." Not all of the "thousands" of ensnared legal voters "will know about provisional ballots or be told that they can cast them."
Why not? Why wouldn't this state's 67 supervisors of elections be ready and tell them?
Florida's provisional voting law, enacted and signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush just ahead of the 2004 election, was intended to prevent one of the major embarrassments Florida experienced in 2000, when scores of voters, especially minority voters, were turned away at the polls because their names were not on the rolls.
The whole voter purge issue, the 2012 model, is pure political theatrics. And what gets me is, as always, taxpayers are picking up the tab. We've got one branch of government suing another branch -- double indemnity for us schmucks who pay the bill -- over what? A relative handful of mistake-purged voters who will get to make their case at the polls anyway.
I agree with Rick Scott, I don't get the big deal.
If I walk into my precinct on Aug. 14 or Nov. 6 and my name isn't on the rolls, I'm going to be annoyed, I'm going to be inconvenienced, I'm certainly going to want an explanation. But I'm going to get on with it. I'm going to vote provisionally, prove my eligibility and my vote will be counted. End of story.
This is real life, it's not a 1960s Disney film. And not one of us is Julie Andrews leaping through an alpine field of wildflowers. Stuff happens -- regularly. And we deal with it.
A couple of years ago my handbag was stolen. It had my checks, credit cards, Social Security card inside. And it took months to sort out the resultant nightmare.
The other day my email address was hacked, I spewed out spam to everyone I know, and it took me the best part of a day and some major embarrassment to cure the problem.
But in between there were errors on bank statements, wrong orders shipped to my home, cars sent for repair that came back worse than they went in, expensive contracts -- bad, bad contracts -- I signed up for that I can't get out of.
All of this falls into the "stuff happens" category. And all of it -- every bit of it -- is more inconvenient, unpleasant and/or humiliating in my mind than being told I have to vote provisionally, then prove my eligibility in order for my vote to count.
I think, I hope, that like Rick Scott -- as a citizen who has voted in every election I could since I was 21 -- I would rein in the outrage, prove I am right and they are wrong, and then move on.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
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