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Monday, October 10, 2016

Bloggytown

Florida Democrats sue Rick Scott over voter registration deadline

Posted By Monivette Cordeiro on Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 12:00 PM

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Photo by Jeremy Reper

The Florida Democratic Party is suing Florida Gov. Rick Scott in federal court after he freaked everybody out over Hurricane Matthew days before the voter registration deadline and now refuses to extend it.

After Scott made a series of ominous warnings, such as "This storm will kill you," the campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton asked Scott to extend the voter registration deadline, which is currently Tuesday, Oct. 11. Scott, who is the chairman of a super PAC for Republican nominee Donald Trump, denied the request from the Clinton campaign, saying Floridians had more than enough time to register beforehand.

Politico reports the Democrats' lawsuit says Scott's actions are unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendment and violate the Voting Rights Act:

Citizens in the hurricane-threatened counties are being unfairly and unequally denied a chance to register to vote, the suit says, because government offices were closed last week, postal service was shut down and Scott had issued dire warnings telling people to leave such as: “This storm will kill you. Time is running out.”

Amid Scott’s refusal to extend the deadline, thousands of potential voters might not be able to register to cast ballots in this election. And many of them, statistics indicate, might be Democrats or those who often favor Democratic candidates: young, poor or minority voters, who tend to sign up to vote at the last minute in greater numbers than Republicans.

Democrats are asking that the registration deadline be extended until Oct. 18. Today (Monday, Oct. 10) is Columbus Day, a federal holiday, so it's possible no ruling will be made in time to matter.

Tags: rick scott, florida dems, florida democratic party, florida democrats, voter registration, vote, election 2016, Image

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