Senate Judiciary Committee to Discuss "The State of the Right to Vote After the the 2012 Election"
[Image courtesy of judiciary.senate.gov]
At 10am Eastern today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the 2012 election with the following witnesses:
The Honorable Charles Crist, Jr.
Former Governor of Florida
St. Petersburg, FL
The Honorable Matt Schultz
Secretary of State of Iowa
Des Moines, IA
The Honorable Gilda Cobb-Hunter
House of Representatives
State of South Carolina
Columbia, SC
The Honorable Ken Bennett
Secretary of State of Arizona
Phoenix, AZ
Nina Perales
Vice President of Litigation
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
San Antonio, TX
Judging from the buzz on Twitter, Crist’s testimony is likely to get the most attention, given Florida’s continued central role in election news in 2012 and the fact that he disagrees with many of the election policies of his successor. But the remaining witnesses are fascinating as well:
- – Secretary Schultz is a steadfast supporter of voter ID who made the news in 2012 for threatening to arrest international observers in Iowa;
- – Rep. Cobb-Hunter has been an opponent of efforts to enact voter ID in South Carolina and will likely be asked about the other election problems that occurred in her state on Election Day;
- – Secretary Bennett will have a wide range of topics to discuss, from Arizona’s first-in-the-nation online voter registration system to the recent spike in provisional ballots in 2012; and
- – Ms. Perales is a well-known voice who has recently been noting the widening gap between eligibility and voting in the Latino community.
You can follow the hearing live via webcast via the hearing page here.