title:  Florida Governor Uses Hurricane Matthew As Excuse To Try And Help Trump Win
text: Florida s Republican governor Rick Scott is not allowing the impending pressure of Hurricane Matthew to interrupt his partisan push on behalf of Donald Trump in his state. The storm is expected to disrupt day-to-day operations in the state at multiple levels, with multiple state and county agencies, as well as hundreds of private businesses, shutting down to ride out the weather event.The storm is sure to affect the impending deadline for voter registration on October 11. But when Democrats asked Governor Scott to extend the deadline as the population digs out from the storm, he decided to refuse.Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott on Thursday evening said the state will not extend an October 11 voter registration deadline. I m not going to extend it,  Scott said at a news conference on the storm.  Everybody has had plenty of time to register. I don t intend to make any changes. Scott is not a disinterested third party by any stretch. In addition to being a fellow Republican, Scott currently serves as the national chairman of a super PAC helping the Trump campaign, Rebuilding America Now.The governor s behavior is part of a long-standing election year pattern amongst many Republican officials, where they do whatever is in their power   often as Secretary of State or Governor   to ensure that as few Democrats as possible are eligibile to vote. In the south, particularly, a lot of these actions are targeted at counties with large black populations.The government of North Carolina was recently rebuked for designing a voter ID system that was designed from the ground-up to exclude voters from areas with black populations that were more likely to vote Democratic.Hurricane Matthew is expected to hit somewhere along the northern part of Palm Beach county and above, along Florida s east coast. That is an area of the state that leans more Democratic, and as such the storm path would impact that demographic.And it becomes very clear why the governor made the decision he has.Featured image via Flickr