We all know that by the time the Supreme Court got done with Bush v. Gore, President Bush won Florida by 537 votes.

The Wall St. Journal (free link) reports that requests for restoration of voting rights is up in Florida.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist went against his party a year ago and made it easier for felons to regain their voting rights. The process has been slow, however -- stirring controversy in a state expected to be closely fought in this fall's elections.

Florida's clemency board has restored voting rights to nearly 75,000 residents. But nearly 96,000 requests are pending, according to information through March 20. Activists say there might be an additional 400,000 people who have been rejected without explanation, making it impossible for them to be reinstated.

It's not just Florida. Across the country, there are 5.3 million people who have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions. The Brennan Center reports that 4 million of them are no longer in prison. [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In my earlier discussion about why Hillary Clinton should fight for revotes in Michigan and Florida, I noted that most bloggers, including Kos, had adopted Mark Schmitt's view that Clinton did not want revotes in Michigan and Florida - she wanted uncertainty. Now that it appears that there will be no revotes, Kos adopts my view of this Clinton uncertainty/revote issue:

There are many good reasons to believe that Chuck Rosenthal should not be the district attorney in Harris County, Texas ... or anywhere else. He leads the nation in his aggressive use of the death penalty and refused to change that stance in the face of evidence that the Houston crime lab was falsifying data. When a grand jury asked Rosenthal to recuse himself from the investigation of that scandal on the ground that he was up to his neck in it, he declined. He defended his office's reliance on false testimony to support a conviction although he had the good grace to apologize for one of the many wrongful convictions for which his office is responsible.

Voters like Rosenthal because of his image as a "tough prosecutor" -- they apparently think it's more important to look tough than to be right, or fair. It may not be Rosenthal's official actions, but his racist emails, that finally bring him down.

more...

After watching the tv news and clicking on local media websites all night long, trying to determine the outcome of the marijuana initiative on Denver's ballot that would make pot offenses the lowest priority for Denver's police, I gave up.

It was a mostly mail-in election and there were major problems counting the ballots. At midnight, with 70,000 of the 90,000 votes counted, the initiative was winning 55.5% to 45.5%.

Then Denver's Clerk and Recorder called in the Swat Team to finish counting the ballots. Calling in the police to count the votes on a marijuana reform measure?

If the vote changes by morning, I want a recount.

Update: It looks like the pot initiative passed. Congratulations, Safer Denver. They will be counting votes until this afternoon, but 75,000 of the 90,000 are counted and its winning by 56.3% to 43.7%.

Atrios gets this utterly wrong:

It's also clear that there are factions that are very wedded to the "what Democrats need to do" literature because they're interested not in simply winning elections but in remaking the Democratic party in their image. For some the 2006 election win was premature as the Democrats won without massively repositioning themselves, proving it was possible.

First, I hope all Dems are interested in remaking the Democratic Party in their image. Is that not why we care so much? The issues? The substance? The ideology? We want to transform the Democratic Party. I think it is perfectly fair for those who disagree with any particular view (Atrios means the DLC types here) to try and do the same thing. Let the debate rage on.

Second, the Democrats very much remade their image in the 2006 election. They became the anti-Iraq War Party. It is why they won. The Dems massively repositioned themselves. That they have failed to stick to their guns is another matter. But in 2006, the Dems fought against the war and stood up to Rove's "cut and run" nonsense.

Vanity Fair's September issue has a long interview with Al Gore and Tipper about the 2000 election and the effect of the media.

Tipper Gore tells [author Evgenia] Peretz that following the loss, “we were roadkill … it took a long time to pick ourselves up from what happened.” Tipper also says that Al has made no moves that would suggest a run for the presidency, but adds that if he turned to her one night and said he had to run, she’d get on board, and they’d discuss how to approach it this time around, given what they’ve learned.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, through Rep. Henry Waxman says:

At the request of Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, John Walters, the nation’s drug czar, and his deputies traveled to 20 events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the 2006 elections. The trips were paid for by federal taxpayers and several were combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy is calling for Walters' resignation and has a letter for you to sign. The group points out:

It is not only offensive that someone charged with crafting sensible policies to address the serious harms of drug abuse and drug prohibition would waste government resources and time on partisan politics, it is a blatant violation of the federal Hatch Act.

Drug Policy Alliance has issued this press release. [Hat tip to Think Outside the Cage.]

Congrats to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, one of TalkLeft's legal heroes, for winning re-election Tuesday with 84% of the vote. Oscar is one popular mayor. I hope he runs for Governor next time around.

Oscar Goodman, a former mob lawyer and self-proclaimed "happiest mayor in the world," breezed to a third term as mayor of Las Vegas. The Democrat won 84 percent of Tuesday's vote with all precincts reporting, easily avoiding a June run-off. His nearest competitor had just 2,170 votes to Goodman's 26,845.

"I just pity anybody who gets in my way," Goodman joked.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has an excellent idea:

... automatically restoring voting rights to felons who complete their sentences. In a recent speech, Mr. Crist pledged to lead the movement for the restoration of voting and civil rights for ex-offenders in Florida and hinted that he might do so by issuing an executive order.

Why is it such a good idea?

It would take the restoration issue out of the hands of a sluggish bureaucracy that has clearly failed to do its job and vault Florida to the forefront of a national movement that aims to extend democracy to ex-offenders. It would also help put an end to one of the most shameful episodes in American electoral history.

This editorial explains why disenfranchisement of ex-offenders is shameful.

The evidence is in: voter ID laws suppress voter turnout, particularly in minority populations. But the GOP already knew that.

States that imposed identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3 percent, and by two to three times as much for minorities, new research suggests.

I agree with Stoller:

Here's a thought on FL-13 and voting problems. The FL-13 seat will be up to the House of Representatives. This puts both parties in a difficult situation. The Republicans clearly stole the seat and disenfranchised thousands of voters, but at the same time, the Democrats don't want to be seen as partisan in installing their own person through their control of the House. My suggestion would be for Pelosi to cut a deal with the Republicans. The House and Senate will pass, with Republican approval, some hard-core voting reform legislation that mandates all sorts of checks into voting integrity and vote-counting, including same day registration, paper trails, etc. And in return, the Democrats will seat the Republican in FL-13.

I heartily endorse this lemonade formula from Matt.

So when I got home this evening, this was on my answering machine:

Hello Mr. Kelly. My name is David Kramer with Congressman Tom Reynolds and the National Republican Congress Committee in Washington. We wanted to recognize you with our National Leadership Award and I need to speak to you about a press release we want to send out.

Yeah, I've been a great Republican leader here at TalkLeft. I'm tempted to return David's call just to gloat about the change of leadership, but in the words of another famous Republican, "that would be wrong." And after Tuesday, it's easy to be generous of spirit.

Amusing thoughts about this NRCC fundraising scam (moving into desperation mode if they're calling me) can be found here, here and here.