Florida Expands Early Voting

Is this going to be the latest lighting rod in Florida voting? A federal court on Thursday mandated that Florida give five of its counties four extra days of early voting in November. Early voting tends to help Democrats, and earlier this year, Republican lawmakers there had cut the number of early voting days from 12 to eight. But a federal court ruled the reduction of early voting days would “make materially more difficult for some minority voters to cast a ballot.” The counties are covered under a special section of the Voting Rights Act that makes it illegal to change voting practices without being cleared by federal officials or judges.