Extended Early Voting Hours

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Governor Charlie Crist extended early voting hours from 8 hours to 12 a day. He did this because:

Crist said the right to vote is sacred and that "many have fought and died for this right."

Now, if you're anything like me, you believe that voting is obligatory, and should be as easy as possible. (OK, most people would replace "obligatory" with "a right".) So why, you may ask, would it be a big deal? And why, you might ask, are the polls ONLY open 8 hours a day?

Consider this:

In 2005, the Republican-dominated state legislature, over the objection of the county election supervisors who run the balloting, passed laws limiting polling places to city halls, the main offices of county election boards and public libraries. County election officials wanted to expand that list to include community centers, health clinics, recreational centers and other public facilities.

Why would they want to restrict where people would vote? The same reason they wanted to limit the hours. You can read the whole report, but you can also check out page 11, where you'll find out WHO votes early. And it's not Republicans.

Remember, this is FLORIDA, where to get a paper trail for ballots, the Democrats had to cede the date of Primary Date, 2008.

Per Ben Smith -

[Referring to (Republican) Governor Crist] "He just blew Florida for John McCain," one plugged in Florida Republican just told me.