Like generals fighting the last war, Florida political officials are still squabbling over the previous election.

At The Associated Press’ annual legislative planning meeting recently in Tallahassee, Democratic and Republican leaders pointed fingers and traded accusations over who was to blame for the voting foul-ups last November in several areas of the state. Naturally, the focus was on the 2011 law that, among other things, reduced the number of early voting days.

What’s important is to make changes necessary to ensure the problems don’t repeat, not scoring partisan political points.

Many of the provisions of the 2011 law seemed unnecessary and ill-advised at the time, and the 2012 election only cemented that belief. Republicans at the time argued that reforms were needed to combat voter fraud, even though there was scant evidence such fraud was occurring. At the meeting, GOP leaders didn’t even mention voter fraud.

Maybe that’s because they were too busy fending off Democratic charges that the real aim of the 2011 law was to suppress minority voter turnout that overwhelmingly benefits Democrats. One example of racial bias Democrats pointed to was eliminating early voting on the Sunday before Election Day, which in 2008 had been the day many African-American voters had cast their ballots after attending church (a get-out-thevote effort dubbed “Souls to the Polls”).

If Republicans were trying to rig the system, they failed spectacularly. Not only did President Barack Obama win Florida’s electoral votes, but the GOP lost seats in the state House and Senate. And they made lots of voters, in both parties, angry with the delays.

Reducing the number of early voting days from 14 to eight also has been partially blamed for long lines at polling places in central and south Florida. Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers appear amenable to increasing the number of early voting days, and legislation has been filed to address another reason for voting delays — an inordinate amount of constitutional amendments that clogged ballots.

Tallahassee needs to work with local election officials to fix what’s broken — and to leave alone what isn’t. Senate President Don Gaetz has suggested giving counties more power to tailor certain election laws to their communities’ needs. That’s a good forwardlooking approach that learns from the past without clinging to it.

— The News Herald of Panama City, Fla.