Ordered Evacuation of 1.5 Million People, Hundreds of Thousands Without Power
Republican Governor Rick Scott is refusing to extend Florida’s crucial voter registration deadline of October 11, just four days away. Matthew, predicted to possibly be among the worst hurricanes in recent history, has already killed more than 300 people in Haiti before moving toward Florida, prompting Gov. Scott to appear on the news frequently over the past few days.
Here’s Gov. Scott describing the extremely dangerous storm on CNN Thursday night:
“This storm will kill you,” Scott, who is the chairman of Donald Trump’s Super PAC, told his citizens, rightly ordering the evacuation of 1.5 million people. At least 300,000 are without power. School has been canceled across a good portion of the state and the calendar extended. Legislative deadlines have been extended. College football games postponed. President Obama officially declared a state of emergency for Florida on Thursday.Â
“I’m not going to extend” the voter registration deadline, Scott told reporters Thursday. “You’ve had, everybody has had a lot of time to register.”
“So on top of that we got lots of opportunities to vote, early voting, absentee voting and election day so I don’t intend to make any changes.”
Florida of course is a key battleground state which has the power to determine the presidential election, as it did in 2000 for George W. Bush.
Four years ago, Gov. Scott led a huge voter registration purge:
In August, The New York Times determined Florida this year again will have the most power over the election.
Politico notes the “final days of voter registration in Florida often brings out more people who register as Democrats or who, though they register as no-party-affiliation voters, fit the profile of a Democratic voter.”
In 2012 during the final eight days of voter registration over 86,000 registered to vote. The largest percentage were Democrats, followed by independents who were younger or minority voters, who also tend to vote Democratic, according to University of Florida political science professor Daniel A. Smith.
President Barack Obama won Florida by just over 74,000 votes, less than one percent.
“I think there’s a connection between what Rick Scott is doing and the numbers we see,†Prof. Smith told Politico. “I don’t expect him to extend the voter-registration period because the tailed end of voter-registration drive tends to pick up those who are less politically engaged, who are younger and minority voters and that doesn’t bode well for the Republican Party.â€
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