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Report Finds 2000 Florida Vote Rife with Disparities June 5, 2001 1:13 am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" that unfairly penalized minority voters, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, quoting a government report.

The Post said the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights criticized top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate treatment of voters.

It said the commission -- composed of four Democrats, three independents and one Republican -- planned to ask the U.S. Justice Department and the Florida attorney general's office to investigate whether federal or state civil rights laws were violated.

Unequal access to modern voting equipment and "overzealous efforts" to purge state voter lists most harshly affected black voters in the state that decided the November election for President Bush, the Post said, quoting the 167-page final draft report.

The commission's six-month investigation found no "conclusive evidence" that officials "conspired" to disenfranchise minority and disabled voters.

But it said 54 percent of votes rejected during the Florida election were cast by black voters, although African Americans comprised only 11 percent of voters statewide.

"The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. State officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement," the Post quoted the report as saying.

"Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement and not the dead-heat contest that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election," it said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Bush, the younger brother of the president, took issue with the report, noting that its preliminary report several months ago had failed to find "any evidence of intentional discrimination," the Post said.

"Since that report, the governor has signed into law one of the most progressive election reform bills in the nation. We will have no further comment until our office receives a copy of the final report," it quoted Katie Baur as saying.

The Florida attorney general's office is investigating "possible civil rights violations stemming from the election," spokesman Joe Bizzaro said yesterday. "We're going to give due consideration to whatever is requested by the commission."

A bipartisan task force appointed by Gov. Bush concluded the November election was marred by systemic inconsistencies, citing unreliable voting machines, improper counting of absentee ballots and inaccurate databases.

The commission's report is the broadest, and most narrowly focused on minorities, to date. The panel held three days of hearings, interviewed 100 witnesses and reviewed 118,000 documents.

Among the key findings:

-- African Americans were nearly 10 times as likely as whites to have their ballots rejected.

-- Some Hispanic and Haitian voters were not provided ballots in their native languages, and physical barriers sometimes kept disabled voters from entering polling sites.

-- The Florida Division of Elections failed to educate Florida's residents on the mechanics of voting.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Answers

Among the key findings:

-- African Americans were nearly 10 times as likely as whites to have their ballots rejected.

Hmmm, they failed to read and follow directions?

-- Some Hispanic and Haitian voters were not provided ballots in their native languages, and physical barriers sometimes kept disabled voters from entering polling sites.

I thought we did this in English? Okay, maybe they should have had the ballots in their own language, but weren't they printed before hand in various newspapers? I know mine was. I took it with me when I voted.

The access issue could be valid. My precinct had thresholds that would require wheelchairs to go over them, one was at least two inches high. I don't recall the width of the doors, but it was a church building, so one would think they would have doors wide enough.

-- The Florida Division of Elections failed to educate Florida's residents on the mechanics of voting.

Oh come on! The Orlando area was the only one that changed their equipment, and they had the least amount of errors and discards in the whole state. Everyone else had the same systems that they have always had, for what, ten years, 20, 30?

The complaint is that the instructions weren't in their native tongues, I guess.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001


"Some Hispanic and Haitian voters were not provided ballots in their native languages..."

ummmm, how would Gore and Bush and all the other candidates' names have been spelled differently?

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001


Okay, okay, you're not allowed to ask logical questions here. this is a gov report we're talking about.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Not that we would even think of beating these, they be so cute!

Cresent and foal, One day old from Lexington, KY. Sent in by Laura G. This is Cresent and her foal at one day old already up and about.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001


WSJ Sins of Commission The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, headed by Mary Frances Berry, leaks to the press a copy of its report on Florida election irregularities. So partisan is the report, that, as the New York Times notes (link requires registration), the commission's two Republican appointees didn't even get to see it before the six Democrats gave it to the press. "This is scandalous," commissioner Abigail Thernstrom tells the Times. "Nobody ever asked me what my views were. I have never had any discussion with a single member of the staff about the substance or the conclusions of the report."

Even Berry and her hyperpartisan colleagues, however, acknowledge that they "did not find conclusive evidence that the highest officials of the state conspired to produce the disenfranchisement of voters." And if, as the report claims, Florida's lack of a uniform voting system disproportionately harmed minority voters, that problem has been addressed; Florida has already enacted legislation mandating a uniform statewide system.

It's clear that the only purpose of the Civil Rights Commission's report is to raise questions about President Bush's legitimacy. The actual effect, on the other hand, is to raise questions about the commission's legitimacy.

Florida Felons

Here's something we bet the Civil Rights Commission doesn't mention: An editorial in the Jacksonville Times-Union notes two newspaper studies showing that more than 5,000 felons illegally voted in Florida. Given that felons are far more likely to be Democrats than Republicans, Al Gore probably gained 2,000 to 2,500 votes, says the paper, which urges that charges be considered against each felon who voted illegally.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001



i'm not certain, but weren't the big problem areas likelier to have had the most recently enfranchised voters?

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

You mean like in Wash, DC?

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

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