Florida orders new purge of voter list

[UpInArms]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=529914

The last time Florida conducted a purge of felons from its voter rolls, in the notorious 2000 presidential election, gaping inaccuracies in the list caused tens of thousands of eligible voters to be wrongfully disenfranchised, almost certainly the biggest single factor denying Al Gore the keys to the White House.

Now Florida's chief elections official has unexpectedly ordered a new purge, causing fury among civil rights groups who successfully sued the state last time, and bewildering county election supervisors who say the lists they have been sent are, again, beset with errors.

The Secretary of State's office - previously an independent branch of government but now under the direct control of Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother - has drawn up a list of 47,687 people it says are ineligible to vote because of their criminal history.

<snipping rest of article - but including part of the last line>

...said a cursory examination of his list had brought up the name of an employee in the county courthouse, who is not a felon.

[Bluzmann57]

1. They never learn

In 2004 the eyes of the nation will be on Florida, and with the internet, and AAR, and everything else thats going on, one would think that they wouldn't be nutty enough to try that again. Apparently they are. I don't think it'll work this time. Too many eyes on them now. Bye bye bush.

[shraby]

3. Too bad that list hasn't been

leaked to the internet...maybe it will be...we can only hope.

[bear425]

2. Where is the outrage?

And why is this in a UK paper and not front page mainstream US? Signed, embarrassed in Florida...

[UpInArms]

8. plenty of outrage here, bear425

and welcome to DU!

I was thinking about sending this article to all the US media connections that I have on my email list :evilgrin: and rubbing their idiotic small-minded faces in the fact that everyone else in the world knows about out Banana Republic.

[bear425]

16. Thanks for the welcome UpinArms, NoLabel and Goddessofguinness

I am planning on doing something about this. We can't just sit back a let this election be stolen, too!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. I wondered the same thing

after the 2000 selection.
The friends I had who were republican brushed the scandal away, claiming that if a Gore had won, Democrats wouldn't be complaining.

Then there was the complacency of the Democratic party through the ordeal. America was sold to the highest bidder in 2000; and the only people who cared enough to speak up about it were silenced by their own party.

That's why there's DU.

Welcome, Bear425! :hi:

[nolabels]

15. Some are way beyond that here, but please join in, we'd love to have ya

&imgrefurl=http://w1.870.telia.com/~u87009323/spain.htm&h=743&w=542&sz=26&tbnid=SX-xvUt2X6wJ:&tbnh=139&tbnw=101&start=57&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bunderground%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

[bluestateguy]

4. Gotta get those negroes off the rolls!

Cause votin's for the white folks!

[TankLV]

5. Why should they get rid of a good thing?!

It worked PERFECTLY for the repukes the last time!

There will be absolutely NO effort to fix this problem, and probably even more successful attempts to multiply it, as long as the repukes are in control any place.

[phoebe]

6. wonder if any of his immediate family members are on that list?

Noelle, his daughter, was arrested
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/29/jeb.bush.daughter.drugs/

Columba, his wife, was arrested
http://www.seoulsearching.com/magazine/bushfamily.html

snip

She was arrested by US Customs Agents and was fined $4,000.00 USD and convicted for smuggling! At the very minimum, Mrs. Bush is a liar. She was asked to declare items and she told a lie to the US Custom's Agents. She didn't forget to declare the items. She knew it was a lie to tell US Customs Agents that she only had $500 worth of goods while in fact she had $20,000.00 USD worth of big ticket items. Folks, that is a federal felony or two right there.


and George P. Bush was reportedly arrested for burglary and criminal mischief when he was 18.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0404-09.htm

[Don_G]

7. Florida Has Yet To Restore 146,000 Voters To The Rolls

On top of purging the rolls from 2000, Florida hasn't restored the voting rights of 145,8600 eligible voters to the rolls.

Can you say "theft?": http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=151-06082004

[MasonJar]

9. I am pretty sure that despite the agreement with the NAACP , Jeb

has not restored 75,000 he took off in 2000 (and his idiot brother still should have lost. I want to know what he did after ABC declared Florida for Gore through exit polls. He left Babs and Pops and never returned. I am sure votes were disappearing.

[AndyTiedye]

14. That's When All those *Negative* Votes for Gore Started Showing Up

How do negative votes get cast anyway?

They caught 16000 of them, how many others got through?

[struggle4progress]

10. Policy on Felons and Voting Is Still Unclear in Florida

County elections supervisors peppered state officials on Wednesday with questions about purging felons from their voter rolls, suggesting at a meeting here that numerous attempts to clarify Florida's policy had not ended confusion on the issue.

At the weeklong gathering, the supervisors have focused on how to sift through a state-compiled list of suspected felons to determine which ones are not eligible to vote. Florida is one of the few states where felons lose their right to vote and must go through multiple steps to regain it after serving their time.

The answer to at least one crucial question remained unclear: whether elections supervisors are obligated to find out if felons convicted in other states have had their rights restored. One state elections official suggested they should be, but Ed Kast, the departing chief of elections, later told reporters that the supervisors did not need to go out of their way to seek the information.

In 2000, the state purged an unknown number of legal voters from the rolls after wrongly identifying them as felons. The disenfranchised included people who had committed crimes elsewhere but had had their voting rights restored in those other states before moving here. Many states automatically restore voting rights after felons complete their sentences.
<snip>

Jeffrey Long of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said a new Web site would help the supervisors verify convictions. County clerks are also supposed to help with the task, but several supervisors said clerks had been unhelpful. In a change from 2000, the supervisors have agreed to get proof of convictions, like copies of judgments, before notifying felons that they will be purged.
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/national/10elect.html?ex=1087444800&en=e2a7a21dfa61dd0c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. This is going to snowball.

Look how they're pinning it on Jeb Bush, the president's brother. I have a feeling that Jebbie has a fight on his hands.

[jdj]

12. Amazing. A Foreign paper is covering this.

Yet it's not on the national news except a hiccup or two.

I read Judy Woodruff's transcript where she announced CNN was suing for the list, and her reluctance to read this on air was obvious just from the transcript.