Gov. Rick Scott has been asked to appear before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee which will hold a field hearing January 27 on Florida’s new voting law.
The hearing will take place at the Hillsborough County Courthouse in downtown Tampa, chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), announced.
Backers of the new elections law claim it is aimed at reducing voter fraud, notwithstanding the fact that that is rare. More troublesome are the number of changes made in the law which reduces the number of voting days, makes it harder for civic groups to register voters and will most certainly cause problems for voters who’ve recently moved.
Durban sent a letter to Scott asking him to appear before the Subcommittee.
“For more than half of the life of our Republic, a majority of Americans were not allowed to vote. Fortunately, we learned from these mistakes and expanded the franchise and reach of our democracy though six constitutional amendments,” Durbin said. “Worryingly, a spate of recently passed state voting laws seemed designed to restrict voting by making it harder for millions of disabled, young, minority, rural, elderly, homeless, and low income Americans to vote. Protecting the right of every citizen to vote and ensuring that our elections are fair and transparent are not Democratic or Republican values, they are American values.”
Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was among several of those who pressed for the field hearing.
“The fact is a number of states including Florida have made it harder for some people to vote, Nelson said in a statement. “We want to know why this is happening.”
