Voting period extended as Florida passes early voting enabling more citizens to cast a ballot

State Legislature: Bill will extend early voting

The St. Augustine Record: Florida Passes Early Voting

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Legislature passed a bill Friday that would expand early voting days and sites, a reversal from two years when Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature cut the number of early voting days. The House and Senate approved a wide-ranging elections bill that attempt to customize this.
Rubio’s main concern was shared by lawmakers and operatives from both parties: ensuring that Florida’s 2016 primary vote counts.

The measure, barely discussed, was tucked into an election-reform bill that passed the Legislature by wide margins Friday. The bill, which Gov. Rick Scott will likely sign, expands early-voting hours and sites in order to alleviate long lines at the polls. The early-primary rule change was almost an afterthought.

Right now, the Sunshine State’s early primary violates Democratic and Republican national party rules, which penalize the state by severely devaluing the vote of its delegates who nominate each party’s presidential candidate. Florida Republicans, for instance, would only have 12 delegates instead of 99 if the state kept its early primary in January or early February.

“We would go from being the third-largest delegation to being the smallest,” said Todd Reid, state director for Rubio. Asked about Rubio’s potential bid for president in 2016, Reid said the changes had nothing to do with the senator’s political future and noted that Democrats support the changes as much, if not more, than Republicans.

The Democratic penalties are even worse than the GOP’s. If the state has an early primary, none of the Democrats’ delegates would count in 2016, nor did they in 2008.

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