This year, as always, Florida is a crucial swing state. Because of that, the liberal media is doing all it can to gin up Democratic base voters, attempting to energize them for the November election by bashing Florida's conservative Republican governor Rick Scott and his attempt to clean up voter rolls of noncitizens, who by definition are not allowed to cast votes. The liberal media, particularly hyper-partisan MSNBC, has also attacked efforts in other states to require voter ID. Florida has had a photo ID law since 2002.
The tragic February shooting death of Trayvon Martin also led the Left to work up attacks on the Sunshine State's Stand Your Ground laws. But new polling shows that the media's attacks are just not working. Sure, Gov. Scott himself is personally unpopular, but the policies he's pursuing are, reports Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times (emphasis mine):
TALLAHASSEE -- After 18 months as governor, Rick Scott remains personally unpopular with a majority of Floridians, according to a new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.
But despite voters’ displeasure with Scott, they strongly support his efforts to rid Florida’s voter rolls of noncitizens in this presidential election year.
The latest survey by the nonpartisan Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Jacksonville shows that 51 percent of voters disapprove of Scott’s job performance and 40 percent approve, with 9 percent not sure.
[...]
The statewide telephone survey of 800 registered voters, all likely to vote in the Nov. 6 general election, was conducted July 9-11 for the Tampa Bay Times, Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, Bay News 9 and Central Florida News 13. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
Scott’s popularity remains low even though his policies have broad support, and despite a run of TV ads paid for by the Republican Party promoting his agenda.
[...]
Despite misgivings about Scott, a majority of Florida voters agree with him on the need to remove noncitizens from lists of voters.
By a margin of 54 percent to 35 percent, with 11 percent undecided, voters said they support the purge efforts.
Republicans overwhelmingly support the purge, 80 percent to 13 percent, while a majority of Democrats oppose it.
The purge of suspected noncitizen voters was halted last month, but it will soon resume. The state announced Saturday that it has gained access to a federal citizenship database that it says will allow for more accurate screening of the citizenship status of voters.
By a larger margin of 82 percent to 15 percent, voters agreed that people should be required to show a photo ID before they cast a ballot. Florida’s photo ID requirement has been in law since 2002.
A separate question in the same poll shows Floridians oppose making changes to the Stand Your Ground law, which George Zimmerman is using as a defense against a second-degree murder charge in the Trayvon Martin shooting:
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law continues to enjoy widespread support among likely voters, even as a state task force considers rewriting the law, according to a new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.
Nearly 65 percent say the 2005 law — which allows people who believe they are in grave danger to use deadly force to defend themselves — does not need to be changed. There’s less consensus when it comes to voters’ thoughts on the Trayvon Martin shooting, which thrust “Stand Your Ground” into the national spotlight this year.
