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August 23, 2004

More on Jeb!'s anti-voting campaign

The Palm Beach Post gives some background on the developing “Keep Out The (Black) Vote” campaign being waged right now by State Troopers in Orlando.

What started as an ugly political fight over the Orlando mayoral race exploded on the national scene this week with leading Democrats and civil libertarians branding the state's top cops and Gov. Jeb Bush as racists.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is looking into allegations by the Voter Protection Coalition that Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents intimidated elderly black voters in Orlando to scare them from voting in the November presidential election.

A copy of the complaint has been forwarded to the Justice Department to investigate as well, said Laura Hart, a spokeswoman for the commission, an independent bipartisan agency charged with protecting voting rights.

At the same time, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and the leaders of the Democratic National Committee and the Voting Rights Institute issued news releases this week decrying the actions of the Florida police and their ultimate boss, Bush.

"The investigation of elderly Orlando voters during the Florida state primary and a few months before the presidential election continues the perception that voting in Florida is neither free or fair," Donna Brazile, chairman of the Boston-based voting interest law firm, said in a release.

But some in Orlando's black community said those who claim to be protecting their friends and neighbors are not only misguided but misinformed.

"This is being spun into something that Republicans are trying to squelch the vote of African-Americans and it's not that at all," said Thim Love, who described himself as a lifelong Democrat who has never voted for a Republican. "It's not a Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It's not an issue about the November election. It's about the March election."

He said he can understand why people are suspicious. After the state's 2000 presidential election debacle, there were widespread complaints that blacks were discriminated against by police, poll workers and the election system.

Further, recent reports show blacks are disproportionately affected by a Republican-backed system that determines how felons are purged from state voting lists.

But, Love and others insist, in this case, Republicans can't be blamed.

"I'm almost embarrassed to be a Democrat after what I've seen in Orlando," Love said. "It think it's worse that a white man paid a black man $10,000 to manipulate the black vote."

The mayor's 'consultant'

The "white man" is former Democratic state senator and current Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who avoided a run-off in the March mayoral race by 234 votes.

The "black man" is Ezzie Thomas, a 73-year-old retired TV repairman, whom Dyer paid $10,000 as a "consultant" to get out the vote in the black community.

When one of Dyer's opponents, Orlando businessman Kenneth Mulvaney, discovered Thomas' signature as a witness on numerous ballots, he launched an investigation.

Within days of the election, he filed a lawsuit contesting the results and also filed a complaint with Orlando police alleging that Dyer's so-called consultant had illegally collected absentee ballots from black voters and, in some cases, filled them out himself.

After being called in by Orlando police, the FDLE initially said it found no evidence of wrongdoing.
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Because it was hot, the agents took off their jackets, exposing the guns they carry.

Alma Gonzalez, who coordinates the Voter Protection Coalition, said the agents were clearly trying to intimidate elderly black voters who grew up in times when white lawmen were known for trying to keep African-Americans from going to the polls.
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Dean Mosley, who is representing Thomas, said many black voters are scared.

As the Aug. 31 primary nears, "People don't want to participate in the process," he said. "They don't know what the law is anymore."

Gonzalez contends the issue extends far beyond Orlando.

The FDLE has sent a message to blacks throughout Florida, she says, that those involved in get-out-the-vote efforts could be the subject of criminal investigations.

That could have a "chilling effect" on black voters throughout the state, she said.

No criminal investigations were conducted when Martin County Elections Supervisor Peggy Robbins allowed Republicans to take hundreds of absentee ballot requests from her office weeks before the 2000 presidential election to correct pre-printed voter identification numbers, she said.
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While the governor's and FDLE's representatives insist that Bush has not been involved in the Orlando case, political consultant and former state representative Dick Batchelor said in politics, perception quickly becomes reality.

Bush could change perceptions by sending Hood into black communities in Orlando to assure people their votes will count.

As a popular former mayor who now oversees the state Division of Elections, Hood could assuage many fears, Batchelor said.

"The governor's a big boy, the mayor's a big boy," he said. "But if we're disenfranchising people from participating in the process, that's too high of a price to pay."

Posted by Norwood at August 23, 2004 07:28 AM
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