The White House on Friday warned against any effort to “impede” the rights of voters after Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected a request from Hillary Clinton’s campaign to extend the state’s voter-registration deadline due to Hurricane Matthew.
Presidential press secretary Eric Schultz declined to comment directly on Scott’s decision, but delivered a broad statement criticizing any efforts to make it more difficult for people to vote.
“Generally speaking, the president thinks we should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder,” Schultz told reporters Friday. “And any steps that impede on citizens’ ability to exercise that right to vote is a step in the wrong direction.”
Scott on Thursday told reporters he had decided against extending Tuesday’s voter deadline for all prospective voters in the state to register, according to the Miami Herald.
“Everybody has had a lot of time to register. On top of that, we have lots of opportunities to vote: early voting, absentee voting, Election Day,” he said. “So I don’t intend to make any changes.”
The Clinton camp had pressed the state for more days to register voters because Hurricane Matthew had forced Democratic groups to cancel registration drives in the days leading up to Tuesday’s deadline. President Obama called into a local Miami radio station Wednesday in an effort to encourage voters to register.
Democratic groups had planned to make a final push to register students at Florida International University and Miami Dade College, as well as several high schools, but had to put those plans on hold at least for the weekend because of the storm.
Obama in 2012 credited a strong voter registration drive in Florida with helping him best GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the key battleground state, 50.01 percent to 49.13 percent.
