Bill Nelson: “I wish to speak to an issue that is all too familiar to my State of Florida but has now taken on such importance that it…”

“I wish to speak to an issue that is all too familiar to my State of Florida but has now taken on such importance that it is a subject that is all too familiar to the entire country, joined by our sister State, Michigan; it is an issue that is sacred to our democracy. It is the issue of the right to vote and to have that vote counted as it was intended. A year ago, the Florida legislature passed a bill to move Florida's Presidential primary to an early date on the national election calendar. Their thinking was to give our large and diverse State, which is a microcosm of the entire country, more of a say in the selection of Presidential nominees. This violated the two national parties' rules, and the threat was made that if Florida moved ahead, both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee would take away half of Florida's delegates. The Florida legislature, despite that, changed the date of Florida's election by law, moving it 1 week earlier than the imposed deadline by the two national parties. The Florida legislature is controlled by the Republican Party, and the Democrats in the legislature, through their Democratic leader in the Florida House as well as the Florida Senate, offered an amendment to put the date of the Florida primary back to February 5 so it did not violate the two national party rules. That amendment was defeated. The bill went on to final passage.”