Florida Republicans Try To Copy Georgia's Voter Suppression With New Bill

The Republicans who control Florida's state legislature are looking to Georgia for guidance as they craft a new bill that would severely impact the voting rights of Florida residents. One of the things that these Republicans are copying is the provision in the new Georgia law that makes it illegal to hand out food or drinks to voters waiting in line, a move that is not only oppressive, but downright cruel. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains why Florida Republicans will likely succeed in their efforts to prevent more Floridians from voting.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

While most of the country is looking on in horror as Georgia just severely limited. The rights of voters in their state Republicans in the state of Florida were looking at their neighbor to the North and thinking, I bet we can do one better. Last week, Republicans in the state of Florida introduced, uh, HB seven zero four one at HB seven zero four, one expands laws that are already in place and makes them a little more cruel. You see right now in the state of Florida, there's a law. You're not allowed to do any kind of campaigning or canvassing or whatever. Within 100 feet of a polling station. Well, HB 741 expands that from 100 feet to 150 feet. Okay. Fair enough. Right. Nothing wrong with that. But also in that 150 foot zone, it makes it illegal to give voters food or water just like that, Georgia bill.

So again, while everybody else in the country was looking at Georgia thinking, wow, you guys are nuts, Florida Republicans were looking at it and thinking, well, I bet we could do that too. And the same part is that Republicans control the state of Florida. They control our government and, uh, it'll become a law like this is going to pass they're there. There's nothing we can do. And to admit that is very painful, but they, they have all the power in this state. Florida is a red state. I know a lot of us, myself included, you know, we're, we're diluted enough to think that, Hey, maybe Florida could turn blue in 2020 because the polls read it. Nope, didn't happen. Trump won by one of the biggest margins we've seen in this state in 20 years, Florida is a red state. Florida is not just a red state.

Florida's a deep red state. Florida is a red state at almost every single level of government in this state. And that's coming from somebody who's lived here, their entire life, begging you as a Florida resident. You gotta write this state off, man. We're done. And it sucks. It sucks to have to say that. And it sucks to feel so helpless here, but I'm at the end of my rope. At this point, we can't stop this horrendous piece of legislation from becoming a law. All we can do is prop up, give money to give whatever kind of support we can to groups that are going to come along after it's passed into law and challenge it in the courts. That's the only hope we have is to challenge it and win in the court system. But Republicans who control this state have done such a phenomenal job of suppressing voters in the state of Florida.

That even though our population is pretty much evenly spit split left and right, the left doesn't stand a chance anymore. Now, if Democrats in the Senate can get rid of the filibuster passed that voting rights expansion act, all of what I've said here may no longer be true. Democrats may have a fighting shot, but if they don't man, the state's done, Florida's done. And it may be time for Democrats to go start working in other States where they think they can actually have an impact because if these Republicans, and this is just one of, many of voter suppression bills that they're working on right now, if they're successful, Democrats can kiss Florida goodbye for at least another generation.