Early voting is underway in Florida in the state's first election since the controversial elections law was passed by the GOP-led Legislature and signed by Governor Rick Scott last year.
On Friday, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the chair of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on The Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, is hosting a hearing on the elections bill from 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. at the Hillsborough County Courthouse at 800 E. Twiggs St.
In order to drum up attention on the issue, activists are holding news conferences on both Thursday and Friday on what they call the voter suppression law. The legislation limits early voting days, radically reduces the period in which third-party groups can submit voter registration forms, and forces voters who have moved to different counties to vote by provisional ballot if they have not informed the Supervisor of Elections offices of their previous move before Election Day.
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2012.