In an interview broadcast on CNN (here: www.cnn.com/...), Jeb Bush revealed his choice in the 2016 presidential election:
“In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life,...”
Jeb Bush, former Republican governor of Florida and one-time front-runner for the Republican presidential pick, tells us he will not vote for president this fall.
Fortunately for Jeb Bush, that is a decision he can make for himself. It is a decision he once denied to more than 50,000 voters.
As governor of the state of Florida in 1999 and 2000, Jeb Bush gave his approval for his Secretary of State Katherine Harris (a republican) to send notices to some 57,000 Florida residents that they would not be allow to vote in upcoming elections. Nearly all who received such a notice were registered Democrats, and over half were black. This voter purge was made ostensibly to remove convicted felons from voter rolls — Florida felons are denied the right to vote. However, when reporters saw the list of those told they can’t vote because of a prior felony conviction, they discovered errors: a lack of any charge or trial, a former misdemeanor convictions, or a felony conviction in another state (Fl. law allows felons convicted of crimes in another state who have completed their sentence to vote in Fl. elections). Further investigations would reveal that nearly all who received a notice from the state of Florida saying they could not vote in fact were legally eligible to vote in Florida.
The felon purge wrongfully denied thousands of legitimate voters the ability to cast a vote in a presidential election year. Ultimately, Gov. Bush’s brother George W. Bush would win a narrow victory in Fl., and with it the US presidency.
In his recent CNN interview Jeb Bush seemed sad and puzzled with his voting choice today. But he is free to make his choice, to not cast or cast a ballot for whomever he chooses. It is a choice he once denied to tens of thousands.