To read about our year-end Best of The Florida Independent series, click here. For complete coverage, click here.
The story:
During the 2011 legislative session, The Florida Independentâs Travis Pillow captured state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, defending new voting restrictions in unusually direct language. âDo you read the stories about the people in Africa?â Bennett asked, continuing:
The people in the desert, who literally walk two and three hundred miles so they can have the opportunity to do what we do, and we want to make it more convenient. How much more convenient do you want to make it? Do we want to go to their house? Take the polling booth with us? This is a hard-fought privilege. This is something people die for. You want to make it convenient? The guy who dies to give you that right, it was not convenient. Why would we make it any easier? I want âem to fight for it. I want âem to know what itâs like. I want them to go down there, and have to walk across town to go over and vote.
The impact:
PolitiFact quickly picked up on Bennettâs quote through Pillowâs reporting, awarding the lawmaker a âPants on Fireâ for his inaccurate statements about the voting processes in African nations.
In a letter (.pdf) sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Project Vote decried the Florida Legislatureâs overhaul of state election rules, in the process citing the PolitiFact piece and, by extension, Pillowâs original story.
âThe fact that reducing early voting would have an adverse racial impact was a reason given by Florida Republican Senator Mike Bennett for passage of HB 1335,â the letter reads. The ACLU and Project Vote argued that statements such as Bennettâs are proof that the election law changes have a âdiscriminatory purposeâ and will have a âdiscriminatory effect,â ultimately asking the Justice Department to stop Floridaâs law from taking effect.
To read about our year-end Best of The Florida Independent series, click here. For complete coverage, click here.