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
Their votes will count if they're legally registered, and can properly mark the ballot. How difficult of a concept is that to grasp?
"If I didn't win, it wasn't fair!!" I see it all the time. But then, I teach 7th graders.
Black Floridians ask: Will our votes count?
Ehmm... perhaps, NO if you vote for Bush... the Dems in those Dems counties will make sure that.
So if Kerry wins then their votes are counted. But if he loses, then they weren't counted. What a bunch of BS! Liberals don't give a damn how they are destroying this country. They don't give a damn about blacks, only how they can exploit them to push their backwards agenda. Perhaps that's why more are voting for Bush this year. He isn't condescending to them, he merely appeals to their beliefs and potential.
of course everyone's vote will count in Florida, they can even practice here:
http://www.boomchicago.nl/Section/Videos/BoomChicagoVotingMachine
Hey let em worry about their votes counting cuz they'll get discouraged and say "F**k it...it's not worth the trip". And the more responsable, educated/informed black conservative will vote.
Considering if you look at history and realize that Southern democrats kept slavery around while Lincolns new Republicans saw them free???...Interesting isn't it? Also consider that most southern states during civil rights movement were once agian liberal. See the Liberal trick is to brainwash them and use their votes. Then see to it they stay un-educated and un-informed and basically stuck in the urban slum so they can re-use when needed. Kinda like Plato, you play with it till yer board or you achieve your goal and then place it back in the jar for a later time.
What's moronic about this is that getting your vote counted follows a simply formula. Register...vote in your proper precinct...and complete the ballot properly! Jesus, how hard is this to understand. Do we need to start handing out crayons while 5 year olds point to pictures of the candidates so we can circle their faces?
We all wonder if our votes will count. With all of the Democratic fraud, it's a question we all have, black or not.
They are totally out of control. It's truly frightening.
According to the Democrats, many blacks cannot grasp it.
Definitely. Without Lincoln and the persistence of Republicans to end slavery and protect Blacks rights, today might be a much different scenario for all Blacks. Yet, Democrats have have duped the American voter into believing they're the party of civil rights and compassion. Of course we all know many of them hate this country, any mention of God or family values. These have been pillars of the Black community for years on end, and most notably, the Republicans.
Several independent groups verified that no group was targeted or disenfranchised. But who is going to speak the truth that it was democratic counties with democratic operatives that threw out votes. The republicans, at the time the recount was going on were not allowed to touch a ballot, only to look on. I've read some of the reports by some who said that when they tried to get a better look, they were pushed back. They also reported that some ballots were purposely mauled so that in the next count they could be thrown out.
Who is making the noise over this as if it was they who was disenfranchised? The dems. They know people have short memories and some are particularly easy to fool. They bank on that last part of the statement, as it has worked so well in the past for them.
And millions of black AGREE!
And we know this is the case because...???
Oh, yeah, I forgot. The bright red label at the bottom of the ballot that said:
THIS BALLOT WAS CAST BY A BLACK VOTER. TO BE DISCARDED IN THE EVENT OF A CLOSE ELECTION.
I am kinda confused. How does a poll worker know a black ballot from a white one?
What I don't get is how do they know that it was "black" votes that were 'disenfranchised' and how many it amounted to? After all, they weren't counted, were they? Plus, I didn't know you had to indicate what race you are on your ballot </sarcasm>.
Bump for later
Absolutely! I'm so sick of Jesse Jackson crying "all votes count". NO, not all votes are counted. ONLY if they are legally registered and ONLY if they properly mark their ballots. Good grief, how stupid are they?
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