U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., joined legislative Democrats on Monday to blast an effort to overhaul state elections laws.
The state Senate is set to take up its version of the bill (SB 2086) as soon as Tuesday.
Democrats at the event made a case that they have so far referred to only in passing: that the bill is an attempt to rig the vote in the 2012 election, when Florida could tip the balance between President Barack Obama, who carried the state in 2008, and his Republican opponent.
“The only problem that they really can cite with our electoral process is that they don’t happen to like the outcome, maybe, of the ’08 election … or maybe some of the ballot initiatives that voters have passed in recent years,” said Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston.
Nelson brushed off a question of whether the bill was also an attack on his own re-election campaign in 2012.
“This is a personal attack on the people of Florida,” Nelson said.
Democrats argue that the measure, which would shorten early voting and bar voters from changing their addresses if they move to another county, are aimed at undercutting the Obama coalition.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, shot back that Nelson should read the bill.
“Instead, he’s chosen to engage in the same old bloated, misguided, inaccurate rhetoric that is just meant to incite division and doesn’t encourage an intelligent discussion of the issues,” he said.
