– By Chelsea Kiene
January 17, 2013- WASHINGTON — Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced a new proposal Thursday to reform the state’s election laws, including a plan to increase the number of early voting days and locations.
The plan will allow supervisors of elections to offer more early voting, between eight and 14 days, and increase the number of early voting locations “to help reduce wait times, long lines, and to better convenience voters.” Scott also proposed reducing the length of ballots.
“Our ultimate goal must be to restore Floridians’ confidence in our election system,” Scott said in a statement. “We must continually push to make improvements, and I look forward to working with the Legislature on a bi-partisan bill to implement these reforms this session.”
During the November election, the governor was criticized nationwide for not extending Florida’s early voting after some early voters reported waiting for up to four hours to cast ballots.
His decision led to overwhelmed polling places on Election Day, where some voters in Miami-Dade County were forced to wait in lines for up to six hours. Voting in that county did not end until around 1:30 a.m — hours after the president had been declared the projected winner.