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Posted on 10/29/2004 12:12:40 AM PDT by nofatum
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. - Alberta Curry has made a habit of voting and isn't about to quit. But the 2000 presidential election left a bad taste.
"Oh my Lord, you don't want me to start," says Curry, waving a wad of political literature. "My concern is, are our votes going to count?"
In the final days before the election, Florida's black voters are talking openly about the anger and fear that followed the 2000 election recount, when their votes were discarded as flawed at a higher rate than the white vote.
Democratic Party officials are counting on that residual anger to drive blacks to the polls and give them an edge in a state that again will be tight, according to polls. Nationally, the state could be crucial in deciding the presidential election, and its black voters tend to vote Democrat.
Celebrity vote wranglers including Al Gore and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have trouped through the state to turn out the vote, pledging that black voters won't be pushed aside.
Emotions are running particularly high in Duval County, where an alliance of black ministers had to apply public pressure to local election officials to get more than one early voting site open in a county where lack of transportation is a voting barrier for low-income residents. Three early voting sites were added in the county under pressure last weekend, but the resentment generated by the initial refusal lingers.
Florida GOP spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher blames the current climate of racial tension surrounding the vote squarely on the Democrats.
"The Democrats have a playbook in print that says go out and accuse Republicans of (voter) suppression whether it's true or not," Fletcher said. "I don't know what the appropriate response is. It should not be part of the conversation."
The Democratic Party ignores black voters and then treats them as pawns during an election year, Fletcher said.
But Curry, 55, is nervous. Political operatives, civil rights activists and election officials have been battling county by county over who is legally registered to vote, where they can vote and how their votes will be counted.
A number of Florida ballots were rejected in the 2000 recount because of undervotes, overvotes or indecipherable punch cards. But black voters' ballots were discarded at a rate substantially higher than those of white voters.
"We have a right to be concerned because history has shown us that a lot of stuff is suspect," said the Rev. Lee Harris, president of Jacksonville's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.
"Maybe someone is afraid if everyone does get out and vote, they won't be in the position they want to be in," Harris said.
The infamous "butterfly ballots" in Palm Beach got most of the publicity four years ago, but in Duval County 27,000 votes were thrown out as mismarked ballots — 42 percent of those from four heavily black precincts.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission determined after the 2000 election that black voters throughout Florida, frequently using the oldest of the unreliable punch-card voting equipment, had significantly higher chances of having their ballots discarded than did other voters.
The commission determined that while state officials did not conspire to disenfranchise voters, the system of voting produced the same result. The old punch-card machinery has been replaced statewide, but many black voters still expect a rerun.
Voter exclusion lists came under public scrutiny earlier this year, when a media organization sued the state of Florida to demand access to the names. The state abandoned the list after it was revealed that it contained a disproportionate number of black voters and that many of the names on the list were in error.
But in Duval County, black leaders have a litany of complaints against local election officials:
•Large numbers of rejected voter registration forms. • Initial refusal by county election officials to open more than one early voting site. •Nearly 60,000 people whose voter registrations have been deemed "inactive" since they have not voted in recent elections. •Revelations that the Florida GOP has a database of names of new Florida voters who may have provided faulty addresses. A GOP spokeswoman said the list was not drawn up to challenge voters at the polls but to reflect the names of people the GOP attempted unsuccessfully to contact by mail after they registered to vote. So when the armies of people working with get-out-the-vote groups like American Coming Together knock on Duval County doors, they're getting an earful from people who are clearly afraid of another Florida fiasco, borne by black voters.
"That's why we're here," said America Coming Together supervisor Susan Hunter. "Where you're weak, we'll be strong."
America Coming Together is an organization working to mobilize the vote against President Bush. It has been active since May, first registering voters in Florida, then talking up the vote and now ferrying voters who need transportation to the polls.
Pamela Perry was sitting on her front stoop when an ACT van rolled up Wednesday morning. Hunter rolled down the window and asked Perry, an elderly black woman, if she needed a ride to early voting.
"I vote on Election Day, and I carry people myself," she said, nodding to the van parked in her driveway.
"I'm going — whether my vote counts or not."
kim.cobb@chron.com
bump
Florida folks have had 4 years to study up on how to mark a ballot and they still think they might not be able to do it. I hate to say it but I don't think making it easier will help. Maybe the state should consider an "Election School" so everyone can be prepared for 2008.
This spectacle of the Democrats whipping up the Florida and Ohio blacks to a frenzy over 'lost votes' are getting on my last nerve. How stupid is anyone who falls for this crap?
The "flawed" votes were a product of fellow democrats ice-picking the ballots to give more votes to Gore. In twenty-three of the 25 counties with problems, the vote was run by democrats.
Clueless Black dems are eternally played by dems. Fools.
Their votes WERE counted in 2000 IF they voted correctly! If you don't know where your precinct is, if you don't know how to punch your card or correctly touch your screen.....well your too stupid to vote and need to stay home!That goes for blacks, latino's, whites, conservatives, liberals and dead people!:(
Oh stop it. Just STOP IT> I am so tired of this crap. They accuse. We point out their own playbook. They ignore and accuse. Message to all "disenfranchised voters": Make your vote truly count. Vote Republican on Nov.2 and send the political carpetbaggers who count on your ignorance and blindness, packing.
Did just that, reminding them that I had cancelled my long-running subscription many months ago for this very reason. I notice that they are now offering half-price subscriptions....before long, it will be another one of those free papers that are thrown on my driveway.
"I'm so sick of Jesse Jackson crying "all votes count"."
Jesse and his ilk foist conspiracy theories on these people who seem all too willing to believe that "whitey" is out to "get" them.
If we could get rid of these race baiting a$$holes Americas'race relations would improve dramatically.
I simply do not believe that most Americans are racists.
Military absentee voters ask, "Will the Democrats try to cancel our votes again??????"
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Larry Kirsanow says otherwise and I believe him.
They endorsed President Bush, but it was more of a financial decision than a political decision!
Me too, Ms. Perry. Each illegal vote disenfranchises a legal vote. So the least I can do is to cancel one illegal vote.
Someone needs to find the pics of the photoshopped posters aka "I'm too stupid to vote" and "I was distracted by a shiny object" from 2000
If the lives of poor black Floridians include:
Welfare issues
Food stamp issues
Driver's license issues
Transportation issues
Employment issues
School Registration issues
Adult Education issues
Housing issues
IRS issues
Birth/Death issues
There is absolutely no help from Jessie and company and the MSM is totally indifference.
But when it comes time to vote, Jessie, big Al, lil Al, and the power of the Democratic party jumps into action to help out. The MSM seems to be everywhere. The reason is they really care about how much voting means to these figuratively poor people.
If they can find the correct polling place on the correct day for the election, and aren't as inept as Broward Gore voters, I'd think they should be fine.
Assuming for the sake of argument that the Democrats were corerct on that (which they're not), why should such people have any say-so in how the country is governed?
Yeah, how do they know?
I read in 2000 in Florida, blacks comprised about 12% of the population but over 20% of the vote. One wonders just who was "disinfranchised".
yes, although you may have a genetic eye-hand coordination problem that causes you to punch the chad of the wrong candidate. but it will count.
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