Stacey Abrams: Florida Republican policies are ‘saying you should be afraid to vote’
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate who turned a narrow loss in 2018 into a voting rights movement and national platform, accused Florida Republicans Wednesday during an appearance at Miami Dade College of responding to a leftward shift at the polls by engaging in “voter suppression.”
In a speech intended to rally college students and liberal activists, Abrams said a controversial election bill passed last year by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was intended “to scare young people from lifting up their voices” at the ballot.
“What they’re saying is you should be afraid to vote,” Abrams told a crowd of dozens gathered into an auditorium-style classroom at the college’s north campus.
Abrams’ comments come amid a fight over the 2018 legislation, which included language implementing a constitutional amendment that sought to automatically allow felons — except those convicted of murder or sex offenses — to vote once they have completed “all terms of sentence.” The law, SB 7066, requires that ex-convicts repay fines and restitution.
The law also included a provision that requires college campuses have a minimum amount of non-permitted parking in order to host early voting centers. Critics believe that was an attempt to curb Florida’s increasing youth vote, which was boosted after a federal judge issued an injunction that forced the state to allow early voting at college campuses in 2018.
Both aspects of the law — college campus voting and felon voter reinstatement — have been challenged in federal court, and Abrams is a board member of a Democratic Super PAC financing lawsuits seeking to overturn aspects of Florida’s voting laws. Her Fair Fight voting rights political organization is also working with the Florida Democratic Party to organize “voter protection” efforts in 2020.
“Voter suppression happens year round,” she told an audience of dozens at a town hall that greeted her by chanting “VP,” an allusion to speculation that she might be tapped by the eventual Democratic presidential nominee as a running mate. “In Florida it looks like shutting down early voting places ... and does your ballot get counted?”
Florida Republicans have strenuously pushed back against arguments that their legislative response to the restoration of felon voting rights — currently awaiting a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta — was in bad faith. They note that the proponents of Amendment 4 said, while seeking approval from the Florida Supreme Court to place the issue on the 2018 ballot, that completion of sentence including the payment of financial obligations.
Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who helped craft the portion of 7066 that implemented Amendment 4, stressed in an interview that the state’s high court recently issued an advisory opinion siding with the Legislature.
“It’s political spin,” he said of Abrams’ comments at Miami Dade College. “It’s not an informed position based on the supreme court opinion.”
Abrams, a former minority leader in Georgia’s House of Representatives, has been calling for efforts to fight against “voter suppression” since she narrowly and controversially lost the race for Georgia governor in 2018. She was edged by Republican Brian Kemp, who as secretary of state oversaw the vote.
The election was marred by allegations of voter suppression. Kemp has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
But Abrams, as a result of the battle that ensued from the controversies of her 2018 election, launched her voting rights initiative. Using the national platform and fundraising ability she gained during her campaign — during which she became the first black female to run as a major party nominee for governor — she’s going after issues of voting rights in Georgia and other parts of the country, including Florida.
Her Miami appearance Wednesday in conjunction with the Florida Democratic Party was specifically aimed at discussing Florida’s youth vote and early voting sites at college campuses — which drew close to 60,000 votes in Florida in 2018. Before the town hall, she told a group of a half-dozen college students that their increased turnout two years ago worried Florida Republicans into trying to block early voting centers on college campuses by “sneaking” in language about parking.
“Essentially it is a gimmick being thrown out to justify stopping you from doing what you accomplished — which is changing the narrative in Florida,” she said.
Abrams encouraged the audience Wednesday to pressure their politicians into recognizing the issues that matter to them and to work through November to register left-minded voters and turn them out to vote. She also told them to monitor state and local election systems to ensure a system that is already “rigged” won’t continue to be stacked against them.
“They know how narrow the elections are,” she said. “Every moment of suppression makes it easier to keep power.”
This article has been updated to clarify that Amendment 4 did not apply to former felons convicted of sex offenses or murder.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 6:35 PM.
