Making the (following) case for a massive elections overhaul, Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, expressed the privilege of voting and how it needs to be protected. "Do you read the stories about the people in Africa?" he said on the Senate floor. "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? Do we want to go to their house? Take the polling booth with us?" (1)
PolitiFact researched this and found a group of African election officials at UF for a seminar series on American elections. To quote PolitiFact “None of the African elections officials we spoke with heard of any case of someone walking 200 to 300 miles to vote. In fact, they wanted to know where Bennett got his information from. We would, too. We searched news accounts of the recent elections in Chad, Uganda, Nigeria and elsewhere and found no instance of people walking hundreds of miles in order to vote.
No doubt about it: This claim is Pants on Fire!”
So Bennett LIED in order to get people riled up to vote to restrict voting opportunities for Floridians. But which Floridians do you think? The affluent white citizens? Not bloody likely. More likely the less affleuent black citizens who have been systematically shut out of elections for decades. Democrats have passed many election reforms and Republicans have voted against them. Now in power, they seek to restore the “good old days” when poor people had a very hard time voting. This isn’t an example of good government. This is an example of excellent racism.
Image: www. poplicks.com
1. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/category/buzz-tags/elections
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