Mitch Perry Report 2.5.13 - Florida GOP ready to say "my bad" on election reform?

Florida Secretary of State Ken Dentzer yesterday released a new set of election reform recommendations in the wake of the Sunshine State's latest embarrassment at the voting booths last November.

The big one is recommending what was the law in Florida until two years ago - extending early voting days from 8 to 14. According to the New York Times, we're one of 14 states that is looking at some type of expansion of early voting days.

That's right around the same number of states that all of a sudden felt a need to combat voter fraud two years ago - a move that infuriated many voting rights groups and Democrats who said such laws were actually designed to suppress the vote, particularly among the young and minorities, otherwise known as President Obama's base.

Whatever the case, the question is: will the Florida Legislature, made up primarily of those same Republicans who voted to reduce early voting days two years ago, now make an about face and admit that HB 1355 was a mistake? Well, they don't have to say anything, the question is will they accept Dentzer's recommendations? Governor Scott wants them to.

The NY Times reports that an MIT analysis determined that blacks and Hispanics waited nearly twice as long in line to vote on average than whites. Florida had the nation’s longest lines, at 45 minutes, followed by the District of Columbia, Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia. Another one of Dentzer's recommendations would be to enforce a 75-word limit on constitutional amendments that come from the Legislature. You might recall how long last year's ballot was, forcing people who were taking their voting responsibilities seriously to spend way too long in their "privacy booths," creating large lines.

Meanwhile, CL attended a transportation meeting in Tampa, where there was lots of talk but no action taken on a proposed bus route in the Westshore area of the city..

And though we haven't listened all the way through yet, for rock fans of a certain genre, a major artist released just their second album in 22 years over the weekend. .