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How Florida GOP’s Voter Suppression Could Backfire Badly Reprinted with permission from Alternet On April 29, the Republican-controlled Florida State Legislature passed a voter suppression bill that, among other things, will make it more difficult to vote by mail — and Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he will sign it into law. Florida Senate Bill 90 is obviously designed to discourage Democratic voter turnout in the Sunshine State. But now, according to Washington Post reporter Amy Gardner, some Republicans fear that it will discourage their own voters. In the past, Gardner notes...

The on-screen graphic during The Rachel Maddow show Monday night says it all: "Oops." Florida Republican legislators were in a huge rush to cut off vote by mail and early voting so that THOSE voters (Democrats) wouldn't have access to the ballot. NOW they're worried they may have gone so far with their blatant voter suppression, that some, or perhaps many, of their own voters, Republicans, may have gotten caught in their trap. Of course the elderly appreciate absentee voting and vote by mail. So do people who travel frequently. So do those serving in the military. These folks are frequen...

WaPo May 03, 2021 8:30 PM ET So began a long and fruitful relationship between the GOP and absentee voting. Republican campaigns invested millions of dollars encouraging their supporters to cast ballots by mail. State legislators passed laws making it easier. Over the ensuing decades, GOP voters in Florida became so comfortable with casting ballots by mail that in 2020, nearly 35 percent of those who turned out did so, according to state data compiled by University of Florida political science professor Daniel A. Smith. Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation — and t...

Republicans want to shrink the electorate, because they think it will advantage them.

CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Vera Orosz of Canfield, left, and Nettie Ricci of Niles open and sort applications for absentee ballots at the Mahoning County Board of Elections in Youngstown last fall. An Associated Press analysis found that the number of ballots rejected in Ohio in the November 2020 election declined from previous elections despite fears that flawed ballots would increase because of the surge in mail-in voting last year. In Mahoning and Trumbull counties, 99.6 percent of all ballots cast were counted, officials said. Staff file photo / R. Michael Semple ATLANTA — The coronavirus pa...