BlogWood: MT Archives

Jeb! to blacks: Vote at your own risk.

Let’s see: in 2000, black voters were wrongfully purged from voting rolls. Jeb! really wanted to do that again this year, but too many people were watching, and the state was forced to abandon its list (though individual county supervisors may still use the list if they want to - a scary proposition that has not been addressed by any major media).

Also in 2000, Sheriff’s roadblocks kept some blacks from the polls, and black ballots were thrown out in highly disproportionate numbers. There are plenty of other stories of intimidation and trickery designed to keep voters from voting too. Jeb! dismisses these reports as partisan whining.

Now, in 2004, we have armed State Troopers knocking on the doors of black residents and questioning them just because they had the temerity to cast a ballot in this year’s Mayoral election in Orlando.

The obvious lesson that is being taught is this: Vote, and you will be hassled. Don’t vote, and you will be allowed to go about your daily business. Predictably, Jeb! says that this is nonsense, but others aren’t quite so sure.

Florida's three African-American members of Congress are calling for a federal investigation into complaints that elderly black voters in Orlando were intimidated by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents.

The call for the inquiry follows accusations from Democrats that agents looking into suspected absentee ballot fraud during the Orlando mayor's race targeted black voters in a bid to suppress voter turnout.

A spokesman for the state agency hotly denied the accusations and said investigators went out of their way to put the voters they questioned at ease.

''Those interviewed were witnesses, perhaps even victims, and that's how we treated them,'' FDLE legal advisor Steve Brady said.

Concern over allegations of the intimidation of black voters has been heightened since the 2000 election dispute when thousands of blacks in Florida complained that their votes were discarded.

In this case, the voters were questioned as part of one investigation stemming from the March election of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Democrat and former state senator, whose narrow victory touched off accusations of ballot tampering His challengers have charged that a black activist may have improperly filled out absentee ballots on Dyer's behalf.

It is the door-to-door questioning of some of those black absentee voters -- coming as state officials were forced to scrap a controversial ''felon purge'' list containing a large number of black Democrats -- that has touched off a litany of complaints.

A voting rights group has said the FDLE investigators in suits revealed their sidearms.

''This is just another example in the long list of efforts to stop black folk from voting,'' said U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar Democrat, who was joined Thursday by Miami Rep. Kendrick Meek and Jacksonville Rep. Corrine Brown in asking U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch an investigation. ``They can't stop us, so now they're trying to scare us. Well, it's not going to work.''

Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush, said the governor is confident the agency ``acted appropriately.''

Well, they’re acting appropriately if their goal is to lower black voter turnout, so I guess that last quote is pretty accurate.

Oh, it also turns out that the investigation has been all but closed by the state, but the intimidation is continuing. Must just be a little snafu somewhere I guess. Here’s more from today’s NY Times:

The smell of voter suppression coming out of Florida is getting stronger. It turns out that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, in which state troopers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando in a bizarre hunt for evidence of election fraud, is being conducted despite a finding by the department last May "that there was no basis to support the allegations of election fraud."

State officials have said that the investigation, which has already frightened many voters and intimidated elderly volunteers, is in response to allegations of voter fraud involving absentee ballots that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March. But the department considered that matter closed last spring, according to a letter from the office of Guy Tunnell, the department's commissioner, to Lawson Lamar, the state attorney in Orlando, who would be responsible for any criminal prosecutions.

The letter, dated May 13, said:

"We received your package related to the allegations of voter fraud during the 2004 mayoral election. This dealt with the manner in which absentee ballots were either handled or collected by campaign staffers for Mayor Buddy Dyer. Since this matter involved an elected official, the allegations were forwarded to F.D.L.E.'s Executive Investigations in Tallahassee, Florida.

"The documents were reviewed by F.D.L.E., as well as the Florida Division of Elections. It was determined that there was no basis to support the allegations of election fraud concerning these absentee ballots. Since there is no evidence of criminal misconduct involving Mayor Dyer, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement considers this matter closed."

Well, it's not closed. And department officials said yesterday that the letter sent out in May was never meant to indicate that the "entire" investigation was closed. Since the letter went out, state troopers have gone into the homes of 40 or 50 black voters, most of them elderly, in what the department describes as a criminal investigation. Many longtime Florida observers have said the use of state troopers for this type of investigation is extremely unusual, and it has caused a storm of controversy.

The officers were armed and in plain clothes. For elderly African-American voters, who remember the terrible torment inflicted on blacks who tried to vote in the South in the 1950's and 60's, the sight of armed police officers coming into their homes to interrogate them about voting is chilling indeed.
......

"These guys are using these intimidating methods to try and get these folks to stay away from the polls in the future,'' said Eugene Poole, president of the Florida Voters League, which tries to increase black voter participation throughout the state. "And you know what? It's working. One woman said, 'My God, they're going to put us in jail for nothing.' I said, 'That's not true.' "

More here and here.