Beware GOP Attempts to Disenfranchise African-American Voters in 2008
Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 07:52:44 AM PDT
Responding to widespread allegations of voter disenfranchisement in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted an extensive public investigation into allegations of voting irregularities. In one of the most thorough and broad-minded inquests in recent history, the Commission found that the problems Florida had during the 2000 presidential election were serious and not isolated. Remarkably, the Commission failed to conclude that the highest officials of the state (you know who they are) conspired to disenfranchise voters.
The disenfranchisement of Florida’s voters fell most harshly on the shoulders of Black voters. The magnitude of the impact can be seen from any of several perspectives:
• Statewide, based upon county-level statistical estimates, Black voters were nearly 10 times more likely than non-Black voters to have their ballots rejected.
• Estimates indicate that approximately 14.4 percent of Florida’s Black voters cast ballots that were rejected. This compares with approximately 1.6 percent of non-Black Florida voters who did not have their presidential votes counted.
• Statistical analysis shows that the disparity in ballot spoilage rates—i.e., ballots cast but not counted—between Black and non-Black voters is not the result of education or literacy differences. This conclusion is supported by Governor Jeb Bush’s Select Task Force on Election Procedures, Standards and Technology, which found that error rates stemming from uneducated, uninformed, or disinterested voters account for less than 1 percent of the problems.
• Approximately 11 percent of Florida voters were African-American; however, African-Americans cast about 54 percent of the 180,000 spoiled ballots in Florida during the November 2000 election based on estimates derived from county-level data. These statewide estimates were corroborated by the results in several counties based on actual precinct data.
These findings do not include the hundreds of instances of voter intimidation in various Florida counties, where police routinely stopped cars driven by African-Americans on their way to and from local polling places. (Many Conservative commentators strongly dispute these claims, but that is no surprise.) In some instances, arrests were made for un-paid parking tickets, expired tags or licenses, and citations were issued for such trivial reasons as broken tail-lights. Word of this quickly got out among the African-American community, and potential voters, fearing similar consequences, chose to sit this one out. There were other instances in which GOP operatives, identifying themselves as Florida State Employees, called Black households and gave erroneous information with respect to polling locations, hours of operation, and even the date of the election.
Countless voters of all races showed up at their local polling places on Election Day 2000 only to find that their names had been purged from voter rolls. Sometime after the fact, it was revealed that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris had contracted with a firm to peruse the voter rolls and delete the names of convicted felons. For some unknown reason, they didn’t stop there, and instead, proceeded to delete names that were, in some case, only remotely similar to those of known convicted felons. Once again, this action had inordinate consequences for thousands of Florida’s Black voters. Whether Republican State officials ordered this action with a specific political purpose in mind has yet to be proved. However, the net outcome was the same. Thousands of minority voters, Black and otherwise, presumably Democratic-leaning, were disenfranchised in one manner or another.
OK, so some person or persons made all this effort in 2000 to affect the outcome of an election in which Florida’s African-American voters may or may not have been highly motivated to participate. The sad truth is, no one had to remind these folks that Jim Crow was alive in well in Florida, even in the 21st century, and that was unlikely to change regardless of who may sit in the White House.
Flash forward to 2008. Senator Barack Obama, the first (Black, bi-racial, person of color – you pick one) candidate for President of the United States, is inspiring voters of all colors and is poised to bring about REAL CHANGE. The kind of CHANGE that raises the hopes of the formerly excluded, those that have taken a back seat to privilege for generations, those who send their sons and daughters into the military for lack of educational and economic opportunities in the private sector. Voter registration among African-Americans has undergone an unprecedented surge. Enthusiasm and participation are high as evidenced by the long lines of voters seen during primary contests. The 2000 presidential election was momentous, particularly as viewed in hindsight. Yet, there is perhaps, more at stake in 2008 than there was in 2000, and certainly more to lose for those in positions of power.
Voter suppression, by whatever means necessary, is not unique to America. One has to look no further than Zimbabwe and the murderous supporters of Robert Mugabe to see what some will do to hold onto power. Violence and intimidation were used throughout the Old South in years past in order to suppress Black turnout. Today, the same goals are accomplished by more subtle means. Granted, Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris are gone, but there are plenty of GOP team players still lurking around Florida and elsewhere. And don’t forget Haley Barbour in ‘Ole Miss and Terry "Harold, Call Me" Nelson, and his cohorts over in the Volunteer State. What we saw in 2000 was just the tip of the iceberg in comparison to what these folks are truly capable of.
We know it’s coming. The question is, what are we going to do to prevent it. Any suggestions?
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