Dismayed after black citizens, voting early, handed Florida to President Obama in 2008, state Republican leaders showed up in Gov. Charlie Crist's office to demand a law that restricts early voting.
As The Grio's Joy Reid told the story this weekend on MSNBC (2:30 into the video), the law was passed...and Crist paid with his Republican party standing and his Senate hopes by vetoing it. Here's a deeper dive into the partisan network's This Week in Voter Suppression plus a check-in with CNN viewers on the same topic.
Meanwhile, Miami's black clergy is adapting its "Souls to the Polls" Sunday voting tradition to the new early voting schedule and promising to deliver another decisive turnout of African-American voters.
MIAMI – Hoping to repeat the record turnout of black voters in 2008, influential clergy members, civic leaders and activists from Miami-Dade and Broward counties will meet Monday to plan the “Souls to the Polls” Weekend of activities slated for Oct. 27 and 28 – the first two days of the early voting period. The meeting will begin 12:30 p.m. Monday, October 15, 2012, at New Birth Baptist Church, 2300 NW 135 Street. Pundits and political analysts around the country have cast doubt that blacks will come out in numbers similar to four years ago. Monday’s meeting is designed to show the black community is engaged and ready to work, said Bishop Victor T. Curry, senior minister at New Birth and president of the Miami chapter of the National Action Network.
