Ex-Florida GOP Chair: Party Strategy Includes Supression of Black, Latino Voters

Florida Republican Party strategists met and discussed ways to suppress the black and Latino vote in the state, according to the group’s former Chairman Jim Greer, adding that there’s “no doubt” that state GOPs were working to “make sure that the Republican Party has an advantage in this upcoming election by reducing early voting, putting roadblocks up for potential voters.”

Greer made the claims in a deposition released in July after he sued the party for monetary funds he said he was promised before his resignation in 2010. According to Politic365, this is the first time he has accused the party of blocking voters on national television, reiterating his views in an interview Wednesday with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Florida along with several other states had been under fire after enacting restrictive voter identification laws in an effort to combat voter fraud. Many critics say that the voter ID laws would overwhelmingly disenfranchise young, elderly and minority voters.

In addition to its voter ID laws, Florida also faced criticism when Gov. Rick Scott led an effort to purge the state voter rolls and weed out possible non-citizens who were on the list. That led to a lengthy back-and-forth between the state and the Justice Department, ending in one lawsuit by the state against the Department of Homeland Security for allegedly denying it access to federal data and a lawsuit by the DOJ against the state under the National Voter Registration Act.

Greer’s comments, however, don’t necessarily come under the most pristine intentions: In 2010, he was arrested on grand theft and money laundering charges, among others, amid accusations that he pocketed $125,000 in GOP party funds.

State Sen. John Thrasher told the Tampa Bay Times in July that Greer’s claims were "baseless accusations on other people in an effort to divert attention from himself.''