Features

On Election Day 2004, everyone’s attention will turn toward Florida—the quintessential battleground state which marred the reputation of the electoral system for many voters, especially blacks. But months before the actual casting of ballots, the black m edia have been reporting that Florida already is embroiled in an electoral controversy rooted in discrimination.  

When the Miami Herald broke the story this July of a flawed felon list that mistakenly included a large number of eligible black voters, the state was propelled back into immediate notoriety.  

The “newsworthiness” of the story faded in and out for mainstream media but African American publications have steadfastly tracked each emerging detail. For black voters, the implications are too impor tant to ignore.  

Bill Alexander, a writer for BET.com, posted an article headlined “A Mess in Florida” on the website on July 17.  

“Florida politics too often have been birthed in outrageousness and burped by shamelessness…(the) controversial Florida pr esidential vote count of 2000 is on its way to a sequel,” writes Alexander.  

He explains that more than 2,000 voters, many of them African American, were “accidentally” placed on the list of 47,000 ineligible voters who were ex-offenders. The pressure pu t on the state after the list was made public triggered the resignation of Ed Kast, head of Florida’s election division.  

Several media organizations sued to have the list made public. The Westside Gazette, a Miami newspaper serving a predominantly black community, immediately published a story when a Florida court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.  

The decision, considered a “victory” by many, was seen as a crucial first step in resolving the crisis, according to the Aug. 6 article in the Gazette.  

Bu t some in the black community felt that more needed to be done.  

Kweisi Mfume, head of the NAACP, called on U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to stop the chaos, according to the J. Zamgba Browne in the Aug. 8 Amsterdam News.  

“We are now seeing the ni ghtmare of unjustified disenfranchisement unfolding before us, especially in Florida,” Mfume was quoted as saying.  

Another problem with the felon list is that in Florida ex-felons are not automatically returned their right to vote once their sentence is complete. Instead, they have to petition for their rights to be reinstated through a complex bureaucratic process.  

Unfortunately, the voting irregularities in Florida are not limited to the felon list. Black newsgroups are publishing some unsettling fi ndings.  

BlackAmericaWeb.com published a story on Aug. 17 that looks directly at the issue of voter intimidation by the state’s Republican Party and top law enforcement agency.  

Sherrel Wheeler Stewart quotes Democratic activists in Orlando, who believe the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) zeroed in on black voters during an investigation into voter fraud.  

After the close March mayoral race in Orlando, defeated candidate Ken Mulvaney summoned the FDLE to look into the absentee ballots that prevented a runoff.  

While the FDLE contends there was no malicious intent and interviews were conducted with “sensitivity,” a spokeswoman for the Voter Protection Coalition in Florida, Alma Gonzalez, was quoted in news reports at the end of July as say ing:  

“FDLE agents showed up at the homes of absentee voters, many of whom were minorities and asked them if they had really voted, if they had actually sold their votes, and otherwise questioned them in an unfriendly manner while revealing their side-ar ms.”  

African American columnist Bob Herbert noted in the New York Times that a similar investigation done earlier in the spring had already found no fraud.  

“Why go forward anyway?" writes Herbert. “Well, consider that the prolonged investigation dovetails exquisitely with that crucial but unspoken mission of the GOP in Florida: to keep black voter turnout as low as possible.”  

Doing just the opposite—getting a high black voter turnout—has become the unspoken mission for many now.  

Hazel Trice Edney, a writer for the NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association), also known as the Black Press of America, reports in an article posted on Aug. 17 in the Sacramento Observer that there are numerous groups and individuals working hard “to make sure the Black vote is cast and counted.”  

The article focused on measures by programs like Election Protection, a project run by the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation that will have lawyers and law students at precincts all over the nation.  

They also set up a toll-free hotline so anyone who is concerned about their rights can talk to lawyers and voting rights experts.  

Due to the efforts of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Berkeley) and 12 other members of Congress, the Bush administration has heeded to the pleas for an outside, nonpartisan observer in Florida.  

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has been called on to watch over this year’s presidential elections according to the Aug. 18 edition of the San Francisco Bay View.  

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