In Tampa Saturday morning, a crowd of approximately 50 activists marched from the corner of MLK Jr. Blvd and Falkenburg Road to the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office, protesting recent legislation passed by the state legislature and Governor Rick Scott that they say is moving Florida backwards in terms of social progress.
The coalition of groups participating included the NAACP, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the ACLU, Occupy Tampa, and others, and was led by the Reverend Charles McKenzie with Operation Rainbow Push, who called the gathering a "sort of coalition of conscience to march and to rally to place these issues before the public."
Perhaps no issue has provoked more widespread complaints than the elections law passed earlier this year that reduces the hours of early voting, reduces the time that a third party group has to turn in voter registrations, and makes it harder for voters who have moved to a different county but failed to notify the Supervisor of Elections to cast a regular ballot on election day.
At a news conference in front of the Supervisor of Elections office before the march began, McKenzie and allies called the elections bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Scott earlier this year an "assault on voting rights."
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2011.