CACULATED SCHEME TO DENY VOTING RIGHTS TO PEOPLE OF COLOR
I spent several hours this morning watching the NAACP public hearing on the Florida vote on C-SPAN. Having done so, it is very clear to me that there was a systematic and calculated effort to lessen the Gore vote by denying the franchise to as many African Americans as possible.
The hearing was orderly, well run, and transcribed by a court reporter and presided over by NAACP President (and former Congressional Black Caucus Chairman) Kweisi Mfume. The hearing was much like a Congressional hearing (but without the word waste and puffery that usually dominates Congressional hearings). There were several panels of witnesses, 2 to 4 people per panel. The witnesses included voters who were denied the right to vote, NAACP activists who worked the get-out-the-vote effort all day, NAACP phone-standby volunteers who worked the phones fielding election-day complaints, poll workers, and news media people. The witnesses were all credible and impressive, their information detailed and often accompanied by notes with names, dates, places. I would not hesitate to call any of these people as witnesses if I were handling a lawsuit on their behalf.
Witnesses testified that they (and family members and others in their presence) were denied the right to vote because they "were not on the rolls," even though some of them had their voter registration cards as well as identification showing their names and addresses.
This violates Florida law. In many cases, the poll workers who refused them declined to make any effort to validate their status and told them to "come back later." Some poll workers were sympathetic and attempted to get approval for the voters to go ahead and vote but were denied by "headquarters."
This is very important. Two poll workers testified that they had been instructed by "headquarters" that they should apply "qualification" procedures very strictly and if there was the slightest doubt, deny the request to vote. They were also told to refrain from giving out any written verification of the refused voters' requests, including affidavits (this is illegal; the law requires that any voter whose attempt is challenged be given an affidavit of challenge signed under oath by the poll worker).
And, in fact, many of the denied voters asked for an affidavit or something in writing to prove they had attempted to vote, and ALL such requests were refused. None was given the chance to cast a "challenge ballot" (which I gather is similar to the "provisional ballot" that is used in California when there is a dispute as to whether someone is entitled to vote or not).
Witnesses testified that they and others who were African American (but not white) voters were asked to provide both photo ID and a current voter registration card, and many who could not do so were denied the right to vote, even though the law does not require that the voters present both ID and voter registration cards.
A newswoman who spent all day at various polling places witnessed the above time and time again. When she tried to intervene, she was threatened with arrest. This newswoman (who happens to be white and a former policewoman) accompanied one black voter to six polling places as she was turned away time after time because, despite her having a voter card and ID, she was told, "This is not your polling place."
Finally, she returned to her original polling place and was allowed to vote. The newswoman testified that at one polling place in Healdsberg County, there were numerous police cars who were stopping African American voters and asking for ID and "What are you doing here?" She saw them stop one elderly man after he left the polls, order him to "assume the position," and question him, as he tried to explain he had just voted (and was wearing a button that said, "I voted"). When she tried to intervene, she was told to move on or she would be arrested, and when she did so out of fear for her safety, she was followed for several miles by a police car. This newswoman broke down in tears because she was ashamed that she had left the scene.
The newswoman testified that she was leaked a list of over a thousand absentee voters by an election official. This was a list of absentee voters who were disqualified for being "felons" (their votes were not counted but they were not informed of the rejection of their votes or the opportunity to challenge them; the Republican commissioner who leaked the list told the newswoman that the instructions were to not notify the rejected absentee voters of their disqualification.
The newswoman happened to know one of the people on the list, someone who has never been convicted of a crime, let alone a felony. Many witnesses testified that people who came in to vote were required to answer a litany of questions, even though they were on the rolls and had ID. The questions had to do with whether they had been convicted of a felony since the last time they voted, whether their address was correct, etc.
Only African Americans appeared to be asked these questions. A police lieutenant testified that a box of ballots was sitting in the police station. Someone called in that it had not been picked up. The police department claimed that they had tried to call the election commission on Friday, but nobody answered because it was a holiday. As of now (the hearing was Saturday, but C-SPAN aired it this morning), the box is still sitting in the police evidence room, sealed with evidence tape. A minister testified that nobody ever came to pick up the box at his church (a polling place for his precinct) and still has not done so!
The president of Haitian Women of Miami testified that she was threatened with arrest for attempting to enter the polling booth to help first-time Haitian voters who needed translation assistance, and even though she presented a copy of the statute that permits such assistance inside the booth, she was told that she would be arrested if she did not leave, and the police were actually called.
None of the Creole speakers who asked for Creole ballots (which were printed for the first time this election) were given them, and although there were Creole speaking volunteers present to assist those voters, they were denied the right to do so. Handicapped people were able to get into some polling places, but the polling booths were not accessible to them, and requests for special ballots or other assistance were denied in African American precincts, according to the witnesses.
I could go on . . . but is it necessary?
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OFF THE CHARTS
Many voters in Palm Beach, Florida, have claimed that they were confused by the ballot structure and may have inadvertently voted for Buchanan when in fact they intended to vote for Gore.
Some colleagues and I have analyzed the county-by-county returns in Florida and found that there is a systematic relationship between the number of votes for Bush and for Buchanan-but that Palm Beach County was so atypical as to literally be off the charts. For a visual display of data, see <http://madison.hss.cmu.edu>.
--Professor Greg Adams
Department of Social and Decision Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University