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PHOTO VIA HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY OFFICE OF ELECTIONSAlleging discrimination against Black and Latino voters, a coalition of groups has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Florida elections law that includes additional restrictions on voting by mail.

The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. district court in Tallahassee is at least the third challenge to the law, which was passed last month by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis during an appearance on Fox News.

The law (SB 90) was one of the most controversial issues of the 2021 legislative session and came after a relatively smooth 2020 election in Florida. Republican lawmakers contended the changes were needed to ensure election security and prevent fraud in future elections.

But the lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of the groups Florida Rising Together, Faith in Florida, UnidosUS, the Equal Ground Education Fund, the Hispanic Federation and Poder Latinx, contends that the changes dealing with issues such as voting by mail could curtail voting by Black and Latino residents.

While SB 90 imposes unjustified burdens on all voters, it places disproportionate burdens on Black voters, Latino voters, disabled voters, and voters who face greater challenges in exercising the right to vote, even in the best of circumstances, the 91-page lawsuit said. SB 90 imposes specific obstacles on voters ability to cast ballots through in-person voting, mail voting, and the use of secure drop-boxes for early voting.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. It names as defendants Secretary of State Laurel Lee, Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Penny Ogg, Gadsden County Supervisor of Elections Shirley Green Knight, Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington and Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer. The four supervisors are named as representatives of the rest of Floridas county elections supervisors.

The challenge seeks an injunction and focuses on four parts of the new law:

--- Restrictions on the availability and use of drop boxes, where residents can drop off vote-by-mail ballots. The lawsuit contends, in part, that the additional restrictions will particularly affect people who work during the day and voters seeking to avoid long lines at polls.

--- Identification requirements for requesting vote-by-mail ballots. The lawsuit contends that the requirements could prevent many people from obtaining vote-by-mail ballots.

--- Restrictions on providing such things as food and water to people waiting in line to vote. The lawsuit contends that areas with large numbers of Black and Latino voters have traditionally had longer wait times for voting and that churches and other organizations have provided food, water and other aid to voters.

--- A requirement that third-party voter registration groups provide a disclaimer to people signing up to vote. The lawsuit contends that disclaimer is intended to and will have a chilling effect on third party voter registration organizations.

Floridas Republican-controlled Legislature and other GOP-led legislatures across the country moved quickly this year to change elections laws as former President Donald Trump has falsely blamed rigged and fraudulent elections for Democrat Joe Bidens victory in November. Courts rejected numerous lawsuits in which Trump and his supporters challenged the handling of the November elections. Trump defeated Biden handily in Florida.

During an appearance May 6 on the Fox News show Fox & Friends to sign the Florida bill, DeSantis called it the strongest election integrity measures in the country and said it keeps us ahead of the curve after the 2020 election.

Were not resting on our laurels, and me signing this bill here says, Florida, your vote counts, your vote is going to be cast with integrity and transparency, and this is a great place for democracy, DeSantis said.

But the law was immediately hit with two lawsuits from groups such as the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Disability Rights Florida and Common Cause. Those cases are pending.

The lawsuit Monday was filed on behalf of the other groups by attorneys from the Advancement Project National Office, Demos, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the national law firm Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.

It pointed to a history in Florida of efforts to discriminate against Black and Latino voters.

Floridas recent legislation attacking the voting rights of its Black and Latino residents is like a virus attacking the human heart, the lawsuit said. Without a remedy to undo the effects, our democracy will die.

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'Democracy will die': Florida's recent law restricting voting by mail access faces yet another lawsuit - Creative Loafing Tampa

The Museum of Australia Democracy (MoAD) is abuzz following the opening of its latest exhibition, answering the perplexing question what do honeybees and democracy have in common?

HiveMind: Honeybees, Democracy and Me officially launched yesterday, ahead of World Bee Day tomorrow, 20 May, giving visitors a unique look at a little-known history of Australias federal parliaments.

The exhibition commemorates the achievement of William Yates, a Victorian Liberal backbencher in the 1970s, who first introduced beekeeping to Australian Parliament House grounds (now Old Parliament House).

On 1 April 1976, Yates asked the then Speaker of the House, Billy Snedden, if he could keep bees on Parliament grounds. Thinking it was an April Fools joke, the Speaker granted permission, not realising it was a serious request.

Three days later the beehives appeared in the Speakers garden.

Peter Yates AM, son of William Yates, said his father always had a sense of humour and wanted to bring some fun to Parliament when he became the Member for Holt (located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria).

Holt had never been won by a Liberal politician before and hasnt been since, Mr Yates said.

He didnt expect to win so arriving here, he decided that Parliament House was pretty boring, and people were too serious.

While the introduction of the bees was a contentious topic at the time, Australia was one of the first countries in the world to allow beekeeping on Parliament House grounds and William Yates became a recognisable figure among the hives.

Mr Yates said his father was a person who had ideas that were often not of then, but of the future.

Dad was prescient, he knew how important bees were to agriculture.

He knew how important bees are to our society and so to have this role of his acknowledged in this way by the Museum of Australia Democracy is something that all of our family is incredibly proud of.

Yates left parliament in 1980, taking his beloved bees with him, caring for them until the day he died.

In 2017, the tradition of beekeeping at Parliament House was reignited by Cormac Farrell following a parliamentary report on honeybees.

The head beekeeper said the idea behind bringing the bees back to parliament was due to a sustainability initiative implemented to recognise the critical role bees play in agriculture and to educate parliament on the industries that rely on bees.

Without them we basically wouldnt have a lot of our crops, Mr Farrell said.

It was really about making that connection to that understanding and having an extra, practical hive on site allows people to experience what its like to be a beekeeper.

Honey from these hives appear as gifts for visiting dignitaries and groups but the other unbee-lievable link to parliament is bees have a very clear and democratic voting system.

Bees actually use a democratic voting system as part of their daily lives, Mr Farrell said.

So, our democracy is not a unique human thing, its something that stretches literally back to the time of the dinosaurs.

When bees are making life and death decisions, they do sort of an interpretive dance in the dark that other bees have to feel to figure out the vote.

The biologist Professor Thomas Seeley discovered that it takes 27 votes in a bee democracy for a decision to be made.

Mr Farrell said that politicians often get a kick out of the honeybee democracy, especially when looking at how the hives choose and remove their leaders.

Sometimes the queen will start to lose her mojo the colony will crush her to death and cook her but they also like to chew her wings off and throw her out the front door so she cant get back in, he said.

There is no back bench for bees!

Along with sharing objects and stories of honeybees in Australian Parliament, the exhibition features a hand-made democratic hive collaborative art installation.

It started as a collaborative art piece constructed by members of the public during the Enlighten Festival in March 2020.

Members of the public were invited to write words of advice or life lessons on hexagonal panels to become part of a honeycomb puzzle, panels which are now displayed in the HiveMind: Honeybees, Democracy and Me exhibition.

MoAD director, Daryl Karp, said it is a light, playful look at the history of honeybees on the grounds of the nations decision-making house and an insight into how the collective decision making of bees can teach us many things.

Bees provide a template for democracy, the sweet spot of collective decision making, Ms Karp said.

They are natures example of democracy in action, and we hope to take visitors to the real heart of what democracy is in a way that, hopefully, surprises and inspires.

HiveMind: Honeybees, Democracy and Me is now open at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House in Canberra. This is a free, non-ticketed exhibition on show until 2022.

For more information, visit http://www.moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/hive-mind/

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The unique exhibition celebrating democracy and bees - Canberra Weekly

Every nation visualizes its history within certain periods. English historians usually rely on their monarchies to define time; they refer to Tudor England, Regency England, and Victorian England. In France, everything before 1789 is considered lancien rgime, followed then by the Revolution, then a number of republics and empires. (They are currently on republic for the fifth time.) Germany is even more straightforward: There is the broad sweep of German history before Adolf Hitlers rise to power and World War II, then Stunde Null, or zero hour, to mark Nazi Germanys capitulation on May 8, 1945, and then the postwar era begins.

Some scholars and activists, by the same token, break down American history into presidencies or party systems. But it might be more accurate to think of our history in terms of a recurring cycle of Reconstructions. The First Reconstruction, after the Civil War, saw the birth of multiracial democracy, the enactment of laws and constitutional amendments to protect it, and then its steady decline as white supremacists pursued Redemption, Jim Crow, and nearly a century of night. Then came Brown v. Board of Education, the dismantling of de jure American racial apartheid, a wave of civil rights activism, and a federal government that would send federal agents and National Guard units to enforce it all.

From 1957 to 1968, American democracy expanded by greater leaps and bounds than at any other point since the destruction of the Confederacy. The Supreme Court enshrined the one person, one vote rule into constitutional law despite intense opposition from conservatives and business interests. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to ensure free and fair elections across the entire country. Even the Constitution itself was amended twice more, this time to abolish poll taxes and to give presidential electors to the District of Columbia.

This time, multiracial liberal democracy proved slightly more enduring than it did in the nineteenth century. The Voting Rights Acts most effective protections survived just shy of 50 years before a conservative Supreme Court majority gutted them in 2013. And today, multiracial democracy is under attack again, and arguably the most concerted attack in our history. Activists like the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, who rose to national prominence while protesting anti-democratic measures in North Carolina that same year, have argued that the right to vote is inextricably linked with fights for social and economic justice.

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Our 250-Year Fight for Majority Rule and a Multiracial Democracy - The New Republic

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Want to be in an art exhibit at Fort Myers Rauschenberg Gallery? All you need is a stamp, a postcard and a little creativity.

Thats the beauty of the new Postcards For Democracy exhibit, says renowned artist/musician Beatie Wolfe.

Its an exhibit inspired by the post office and democracy. But its also a democratic exhibit: Anyone can take part, no matter who they are or where they live.

You dont even have to be an artist.

We just wanted this to be as open and inclusive as possible, Wolfe says, and just have everyone and anyone that wanted to send a card. And whatever that card ended up being was great.

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"US Mail" by Denise Woodward, one of many postcard-art works featured in the "Postcards for Democracy" exhibit.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

Wolfe created the art project with singer/composer Mark Mothersbaugh of art-rock legends Devo.

The idea was to championthe U.S. Postal Service and its essential role during the 2020presidential election. Both Beatie and Mothersbaugh are longtime fans of the postal service, and the friendslove to collect stamps and send letters (and often art) through the mail.

It kind of inspired us, Mothersbaugh says. I think we were impressed when our government started talking about eliminating the post office which was something we just thought was an integral part of our democracy and something that was very important to keep alive.

The project started as a collective art demonstration supportingthe U.S. Postal Service, mail-in voting and the right to vote. But it eventually grew into much more than that.

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Artists/musicians Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and Beatie Wolfe co-created the new "Postcards for Democracy" exhibit.(Photo: Ross Harris)

People from all over the world submitted postcards decorated with all sorts of topics: The 2020 election, of course. And the post office. And Trump. And Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. But also Black Lives Matter. Human kindness. Racism. Feminism. QAnon. Science. The environment.

And there were other, less political topics, too: A one-eyed alien holding its arms out for a hug. The leg lamp from A Christmas Story. A monkey astronaut declaring I dont wanna go to space! A sun rising over the planet Earth. And lots of Devo-themed art, including the bands famous energy dome hats and their slogan, Are we not men? We are Devo!

Moresubmissions are arriving every day, Mothersbaugh says.

We love the post office and we love what its about, he says. And it (the art project)just happened to coincide with what was happening at the time in the country.

But, you know, theres still things coming in today. We have new cards sitting on the table today. And theyre not talking about the election. Theyre talking about other things. Theyre about other aspects of human existence.

The Postcards For Democracy exhibit features decorated postcards from people around the world, including this one by Dan Opalenik.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

Thats why gallery director Jade Dellinger plans to change up the postcards in the world-premiere exhibit. At least twice during the shows three-month run, hell take down all the old postcards from their narrow shelves and replace them with an entirely new batch.

Dellinger expects that people who visit the gallery might be inspired to go home and create some art of their own, in fact. And those postcards might pop up later in the exhibit.

Its very much an ongoing thing," he says, "and were encouraging people to participate.

Wolfe and Mothersbaugh say theyve gotten sacks full of postcards for the exhibit, but they have no idea how many theyve collected. Thousands, they guess.

Its a bunch! Mothersbaugh says. Sorry, neither of us wanted to count.

Now about 1,000 of those postcards are being shown at Rauschenberg Gallery (Dellinger hasnt counted those either).

Wolfe says she's impressed with the creativity on display. The postcardscover a wide spectrum of the human experience and touch on some of the issues and feelings we've all had over the last year.

Its almost like this physical time capsule, a time portal in some ways, to whats been going on," she says. "I think its so wonderful that its being preserved in physical form in a very much digital age.

You look at those cards, and you see so many different facets of our collective human experience and identity, and I think thats whats really powerful about it. It feels very much like it represents what weve been going through.

Ron Logan's "Help Your Neighbor," one of many postcard-art works featured in the "Postcards for Democracy" exhibit.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

Mothersbaugh and Wolfe say they wanted to do what they couldto help something they love: The U.S. Postal Service.

We just wanted to bring an awareness, Mothersbaugh says. We werent hearing anybody speaking up for the post office, so we said, Well dang it, were gonna do it! Because we had many reasons to be thankful.

Dellinger loves the idea of making the postal service participants in the exhibit, as well.

Youre kinda challenging the postal service, he says. At the same time, youre sort of entertaining and being grateful toward them by allowing them to be art handlers.

The project started last year, but the Fort Myers show will be the first time the postcards have been shown in an art exhibit. The world premiere sprang from Dellingers long relationship with Mothersbaugh and Devo, the 2021Rock n Roll Hall of Fame nomineesbest known for their 1980 hit "Whip It."

Guy Adams' "The World," one of many postcard-art works featured in the "Postcards for Democracy" exhibit.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

Dellinger wrote the bands 2003 biography, We Are Devo, and he also worked with Mothersbaugh on a Tampa museum exhibit of his work. Theyd been talking about doing something for Rauschenberg Gallery, too, and then Postcards for Democracy happened.

Dellinger says hes impressed with the mountains ofpostcards that poured in after Beatie and Mothersbaugh announced the project last year.

They were getting thousands of postcards coming in the mail, and some people doing things daily and sending it to them, Dellinger says. And many people going to great effort and doing really clever, really beautiful, really wonderful artworks.

Sometimes it was a simple message, but many times it was a real labor of love that was trusted to the USPS letter carriers. And of course, everyone loved that idea.

The exhibit includes three authentic USPS stamp machines near the gallery entrance. For $1 in quarters, visitors can buy an art stamp featuring the exhibit logo anda drawing of Wolfe and Mothersbaugh.

Then theres the music Mothersbaugh contributed to the show: Seven hours of stream-of-consciousness organ music playing on a loop in the gallery.

Mothersbaugh who has a thriving career as a composer for TV, film and video games wrote and performed the song on an old home organ. He titled it The Most Powerful Healing Music in the World.

An anonymous piece featured in the "Postcards for Democracy" exhibit.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

The exhibit, he jokes, will do more than just entertain and enlighten visitors. You can go in and not only see all these cards, but you can come out healthier at the other end. I had the first clue when I had a cut on my finger. And while I was playing the music, I watched it heal.

Mothersbaugh and Wolfe have no plans to stop the art project anytime soon. Theyre continuing to accept postcards and might eventually show the exhibit elsewhere.

They hope it helps their beloved post office and spreads their mutual love of mail something Wolfe says helped her immensely during the pandemic.

Mail during lockdown, it was really the one thing that was keeping me sane, she says. I was just writing tons of letters and mailing art to people.

And a lot of people, it seems, love mail and the post office as much as they do.

We had no idea that it would get such an overwhelming response, Wolfe says. I think a big part of the whole project is just the joy of mail.

I think so many people have remembered how wonderful it is to make something and send it. Its so much more than just being a means to an end. It brings all this kind of joy.

The exhibit opened May 17, but its not too late to send your artwork through the U.S. Postal Service. In fact, Dellinger hopes that happens.

Its really a project that can truly be open-ended, hesays. Its really about continuing to participate in this ongoing kind of conversation thats happening.

To take part in the exhibit, make a postcard and mail it to 8760 Sunset Blvd., CA 90069-2206. For more information, visit postartfordemocracy.com.

Connect with this reporter:Email crunnells@gannett.com or connect on social media at Charles Runnells (Facebook),@charlesrunnells (Twitter) and@crunnells1 (Instagram).

What: Postcards For Democracy

When: Now through Aug. 8

Where: Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida SouthWestern State College, 8099 College Parkway S.W.,Building L, south Fort Myers.

Admission: Free

COVID rules: Masks and social distancing required

Info: 489-9313 orrauschenberggallery.com

Read or Share this story: https://www.news-press.com/story/entertainment/2021/05/18/fort-myers-exhibit-postcards-democracy-mark-mothersbaugh-beatie-wolfe/4869542001/

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Exhibit takes on U.S. mail, 2020 election. 'We love the post office,' says Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh - News-Press

The dark is rising. Anger, hate and violence are running rampant across the land. Hardly a day goes by without a mass shooting. Lies, half-truths and innuendoes all flow like water from a mountain spring. What can be done to stem the tide of ignorance and irrationality gripping the nation? Who will light a candle against the darkness?

American democracy is on the auction block. Did you ever think you would live to see the day when a president of the United States would assemble an unruly mob and direct them to the Capital in order to prevent the certification of an election? Few would have imagined such a thing. Yet here we are running down and sentencing the worst of the storm-troopers. What a sorry state of affairs.

Whatever happened to the American dream of truth, justice and the democratic way? Somewhere along the way the country took a wrong turn. People bought into the delusional thinking of Donald Trump, the conspiracy theories of QAnon, and the big lie of a stolen election.

How are we going to get ourselves out of the mess we have created? An old proverb tells us that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. All the institutions of our society government, corporate, media and education will need to join forces to promote democratic values. Lighting a candle against the darkness may be the first step toward saving the nation.

Stanley Ivie

Richfield

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Letter: American democracy is on the auction block - Deseret News