Controlling voters by legislation a bad idea
In 1860, the Florida Democratic Party saw a problem: The Republicans had nominated Abraham Lincoln for President and the party was determined to stop Lincoln’s election. So, the Democratic governor left Lincoln off the Florida ballot and instead listed three Democratic candidates. Lincoln won anyway.
A century later, the Democrats saw another problem. Dwight Eisenhower carried Florida in 1952 and 1956, and Richard Nixon won the state in 1960. At the time gubernatorial elections in Florida took place in presidential election years and Democrats worried that a popular Republican presidential candidate might sweep a Republican governor into office. The Legislature moved the gubernatorial elections to off years to guarantee that Democrats would forever control the state.
Two years later, the voters elected the first Republican governor in nearly a century.
This year, Republicans in the Florida Legislature are trying mightily to change the way Florida votes and Democrats are fighting the proposed changes, calling them examples of voter suppression.
But as history has shown, trying to control voters through legislation is a risky idea. Three years ago, Republicans in Georgia came up with a laundry list of ways to restrict voting, hoping to guarantee Republican supremacy. Last year President Joe Biden carried the state — the first Democrat to win in Georgia in nearly three decades, and Democrats took both United States Senate seats for the first time in two decades.
The effort in Florida to change election laws is led by State Sen. Dennis Baxley, the Legislature’s go-to guy for strange legislation.
This year he is not only leading the charge to change election laws but also to cut the state’s popular Bright Futures scholarship program.
The election laws and Bright Futures have something in common. They both work very well. But working with the slogan, “If it ain’t broke, let’s break it,” the Legislature is determined to make changes.
Although it is the Democrats who are leading the opposition to the election law changes, it is the Republicans who should be worried.
The Florida Republican Party has managed to create the perfect election system for the Florida Republican Party. For the first time in state history, the party controls both U.S. Senate seats, it controls the governorship, it gained seats in the Legislature in the last election, picked up two congressional seats from the Democrats, and managed to produce stunning results for President Donald Trump’s re-election.
It may sound like an election system the Republicans would want to set in stone.
But, no.
The state’s Democratic Party is once again reduced to playing the blame game, changing state party leaders, and trying to figure out where to go next. How bad are things? Charlie Crist is the most frequently mentioned candidate for the party’s gubernatorial nomination.
They want to do away with the drop boxes where voters can conveniently drop off their ballots. According to the Republicans, these are breeding grounds for corruption.
But the drop boxes were a Republican idea, designed to help the Republicans. The Republican elections supervisor in Pinellas County (St. Petersburg) came up with the idea, and it has helped state Republicans.
As for mail-in voting, this was a system the Republicans in Florida perfected. When President Trump began railing at mail-in voting, Florida Republicans were aghast. After some lobbying, the president backed down and said mail-in voting was OK — but only in Florida.
The Democrats should embrace the Baxley bill and take a chance. After all, nothing else is working for the party. Making it more difficult to vote would set up a kind of gladiator competition to decide whose voters are most determined to navigate an obstacle course to cast ballots. As Republicans in Wisconsin found out last year when they tried to limit voting, Democrats were willing to stand in line for hours to elect a Democratic state Supreme Court candidate in a stunning upset.
If the Republicans are willing to take a chance on a new system, the Democrats have little to lose. Dennis Baxley may provide salvation for the Florida Democratic Party.
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