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MichaelP
IRISH TIMES .December 5 2000
From Julian Borger, in Tallahassee
Black Florida lost right to vote before polling day
05/12/2000: As the struggle over dimpled chads and voting machines grinds
on, evidence is emerging that the US presidential race was irrevocably
tainted before a single ballot was cast - by the systematic and
unconstitutional denial of voting rights to thousands of black Floridians.
Across Florida, black residents who had taken part in earlier elections
without any problems went to vote on November 7th to find a bewildering
array of hurdles between them and the ballot box. For many, the day's
events were a reminder that Florida is an integral part of the deep south,
with a long record of segregation and resistance to black voting rights.
The state is under investigation by the US justice department for
infringing the rights of its minority citizens.
Ballots cast can be recounted and yield quick results, while votes denied
are difficult to measure and hard to claim. In the longer term, they have
far graver implications for race relations and the health of American
democracy.
Marvin Davies, a veteran of the 1960s civil rights struggle said: "Florida
has always been a microcosm of hate . . . Both racism and hate are a very
viable part of this culture."
During the presidential campaign, it became clear that Florida would be
pivotal and that civil rights groups were making unprecedented efforts to
mobilise minority voters. Under the banner of an anti-fraud campaign,
Governor Jeb Bush and his now-famous secretary of state, Ms Katherine
Harris, implemented a series of administrative steps which may well prove
to have swung the election.
In June, the division of elections in Ms Harris's office drew up a list of
more than 700,000 Floridians permanently disqualified from voting - more
than any other state - because of a criminal past, and sent it to county
election supervisors.
The idea was to enforce strictly an 1868 law disqualifying felons and
ex-felons from voting for life. The law was originally part of the
southern backlash against voter registration among freed slaves after the
Civil War, and was based on the assumption that black residents got in
trouble with the law more often than their white counterparts.
That assumption holds true today, in a state where African Americans make
up 13 per cent of the population but 55 per cent of prison inmates.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than a third of African American men
in the state were disqualified because of a past conviction, mostly
resulting from the "war on drugs" which has been raging in urban America
for two decades.
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IRISH TIMES .December 5 2000
Julian Borger reports from Tallahassee on the expected next stage in the
legal contest over the US presidential election
GOP now faces tampering allegations
05/12/00: Mr Harry Jacobs, a fast-talking lawyer from New Jersey who may
prove to be Mr Al Gore's last legal lifeline, was last night expected to
go to court today to back the vice president's claim that Republicans
tampered illegally with thousands of ballots in Florida's Seminole county.
Mr Jacobs is suing the elections supervisor, Ms Sandra Goard, and calling
for all 15,000 of the absentee ballots cast across the county to be thrown
out. As Mr George W. Bush won the absentee vote in Seminole by a clear
majority, the rejection of the ballots would overwhelm the Texas
governor's 537-vote lead in Florida and hand Mr Gore victory in the state,
and therefore the presidency.
Mr Bush's supporters have portrayed Mr Jacobs as a Democratic pawn who is
simply doing the bidding of the Gore campaign, and lawyers for the Grand
Old Party (GOP) are due in court in Tallahassee today to try to have his
case thrown out as without merit, before a full hearing tomorrow.
Mr Jacobs insists that he is acting out of outrage after overhearing a
remark by a Seminole county election official. The official said the local
Republican elections supervisor had allowed Republican officials to fill
in voter identification numbers on incomplete absentee ballot forms being
sent out to their supporters.
Republicans say the controversy has been confected from a simple printing
error. Before the elections, both parties send absentee ballot
applications to their supporters living abroad or out of their home state.
More than 2,000 Republican forms, however, came out of the printer without
the any voter identification number.
In response to a Republican request to have the forms completed, Ms Goard
allowed two party workers to fill in the missing numbers in her office.
Local Democrats are suing Martin county, just north of Miami, where
another Republican elections supervisor, Peggy Robbins, allowed Republican
officials to remove faulty ballot application forms from her office, fill
in missing information and return them to her a few days later. That case
is also due to be heard in Tallahassee tomorrow.
The Gore campaign has distanced itself from the Jacobs case, almost
certainly because, if successful, it would lead to the invalidation of
absentee votes from members of the armed services posted abroad, a
controversial move. But the case may prove to be the vice president's last
hope if he loses his formal contest of the Florida election result.
Republican officials point to the fact that Mr Jacobs has contributed to
the Gore campaign and that he has admitted that he had sought advice about
his lawsuit from a colleague, Mr Mitchell Berger, who is also a Gore
fundraiser in Florida. The conversation, Republicans argue, proves Mr
Jacobs is surreptitiously taking instructions from the Gore campaign.
Mr Jacobs' lawyer, Mr Gerald Richman, rejected the claims. "They're
absolutely, totally false," Mr Richman said yesterday. "He just called a
lawyer he knew to seek advice. The Republicans just want to avoid the
merits of the case."
Lawyers for the Bush campaign have tried to oblige Mr Gore to appear as a
witness. They have also called on the judge hearing the case, Nikki Clark,
to withdraw, on the grounds that she has a vested interest. She was
recently overlooked by Florida's governor, Jeb Bush [George W's brother]
for a job in the state appellate court.
====================
The website of the parish church of St Chad's in Lichfield, in the heart
of England, has increased its hits from four to more than 300 a day as US
voters type the word chad into search engines and click on anything that
might explain the bizarre nature of their election.
US polling officials have poured over thousands of ballot papers trying to
detect voter intention in the tiny punched squares, categorising them as
hanging chads (largely detached from the ballot paper), swinging chads
(half detached), dimpled chads (indented) and pregnant chads (bulging).
But when the Washington Times quipped at the weekend that St Chad might be
the patron saint of disputed elections, the website of the small Lichfield
church suddenly appeared on political news groups, despite bearing no
reference to the US election, just a list of church services, articles of
local interest and a welcome note to pilgrims.
In St Chad's online guest-book, Chad Walker, from Georgia, wrote: "Being
named Chad and well aware of the importance of bits of paper called chads
I have been embarrassed by it all. Your website has restored some dignity
to my name for me."
St Chad humbly stood down as bishop of the Northumbrians in 667 AD after a
dispute over who should be appointed. Visiting the British church's
website, Sean Fitzpatrick from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, wrote: "The
story of St Chad is a delicious coincidence. Al Gore would have said `ONE
Roman bishop!?! There were THREE! I want a recount.' Then he would have
claimed to have been the model for Beowulf." - (Guardian service,
Angelique Chrisafis in London)
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