Why Republicans Want to Restrict Voting and Opportunities For Voting

If You Can’t Win on the Issues Maybe You Can Win by Rigging the Elections

It is generally acknowledged that in many areas voting is very difficult.  In fact it is amazing that many people spend long hours in line just to vote.  What is not amazing is that Republicans want to reduce rather than encourage voting by making it easier to voteIs this.  Their rationale is now explained in this report on voting in Florida.

Long Lines Cost 50K Votes in Florida

An Ohio State University researcher has found that "as many as 49,000 people across Central Florida were discouraged from voting because of long lines on Election Day," theOrlando Sentinel reports.

"About 30,000 of those discouraged voters -- most of them in Orange and Osceola counties -- likely would have backed Democratic President Obama ... About 19,000 voters would have likely backed Republican Mitt Romney ... This suggests that Obama's margin over Romney in Florida could have been roughly 11,000 votes higher than it was, based just on Central Florida results. Obama carried the state by 74,309 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast."

Is this important?  Well, 500 votes in Florida decided the election for George W. Bush.

As has often been said about Republicans, democracy just ain’t their thing.