Gov. DeSantis gins up fake fear of fraud to suppress opponents' votes

Florida Republicans know what it means to fight to win, even at great cost to American values.

In 2000 they had party operatives pounding on the doors at Miami-Dade's Government Center to intimidate vote canvassers in the Bush-Gore race. In 2010 they blatantly cheated in redrawing political districts in their favor, reversed only by a Herculean, three-and-a-half-year court battle.

They're at it again this year, not that they ever stopped, using their legislative majority to pass laws that place restrictions on drop boxes, collection of mail-in ballots and volunteer voter registration drives, with Gov. Ron DeSantis throwing curveballs from the mound, pitching the laws as strengthening voters' rights and election integrity while they accomplish the opposite.

“Florida took action this legislative session to increase transparency and strengthen the security of our elections,” Gov. DeSantis in signing Senate BIll 90 in May. “Floridians can rest assured that our state will remain a leader in ballot integrity. Elections should be free and fair, and these changes will ensure this continues to be the case in the Sunshine State.

The governor praised the legislation as an instrument to strengthen voter identification, prohibit mass-mailing of ballots, ban ballot harvesting (the practice of political operatives collecting ballots from voters' homes), and prohibit private money from administering elections.

But there was never a hint of voter fraud that would argue in favor of such restrictions. There's only the fact that minorities, the elderly, disabled and other Democratic voters rely on the ease of drop box and mail-in voting to cast votes, votes the Republicans know would turn out overwhelmingly against a party that cares little for the social progress of citizens of color and which, it would seem, fears it.

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Texas, where a Republican-led Legislature gerrymandered district lines to minimize minority voting power. As Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson noted, in her blog Letters from an American, 95 percent of Texas population growth over the past decade has come from minorities. While whites now make up just 40 percent of the population, she noted, they make up 60 percent of the districts. That's not by chance.

In Florida, also amid its decennial redistricting, the Republican-led Legislature continues to conduct remapping discussions largely out of public view. Sunshine State? Not when it comes to fair and open elections.

The DeSantis administration is pursuing a legal battle against the federal government to win the U.S. approval the state's voter suppression legislation requires.

Politico reported that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division filed a “statement of interest” in one of the four federal lawsuits challenging a law the Florida Legislature passed this year. The League of Women Voters, NAACP and other groups contend the Florida law hurts elderly, disabled and minority voters.

The state is trying to get the case thrown out before it makes it to a trial. The DOJ response, as Politico described it, is measured and legalistic compared with its response to Texas but "demonstrates that the Biden administration is paying attention to the litigation over Florida’s law that will unfold while the Legislature is poised to pass another elections-related bill at the urging of the governor."

Election equity, while in retrograde in Texas, Florida and dozens of other states, has stalled in Washington, D.C, Reforms, like the For the People Act, remain the victim of Senate filibuster rules, despite a strong majority of Americans who put the Biden administration in office in hopes of a return to political integrity. As summarized by the Congressional Research Service, the bill would expand automatic and same-day registration, establish independent redistricting commissions, provide election security, improve the cybersecurity of election system; and require the President, the Vice President and candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.

Rather than obstructing every reasonable step forward, Republicans could allay their angst over demographic shifts by demonstrating they care about economic and social equity. Provide what matters to those earnestly trying to lift themselves up, such as health care and child care assistance.

But this is a call to action to liberals and conservatives alike, at all levels of government, to do the hard work of reclaiming America for democracy. A measured response is nice. But it's time to kick the election fraud fakers in the shins and restart this country.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Editorial: Gov DeSantis' laws, suits aim to limit Black votes