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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."

Jeb! is determined to suppress the Black vote

The GOP in Florida is determined to suppress the black vote. The (mostly) discarded voter purge list is just the most glaring example of this strategy.

Jeb! and his cronies always use the same language in defending their indefensible actions: They act for the “integrity” of the election, or to protect the rights of the voters. These actions have included not only the racist purge list but also tactics designed to discourage and intimidate such as overzealous and illegal interpretations of the “requirement” to show a picture ID before voting. While the statutes require photo and signature identification, generally they also allow people without such ID to vote after signing an affidavit, but people without ID have been turned away by misinformed poll workers (or well-trained GOPers?).

Lately, Orlando has been in the news because Jeb!’s Storm State Troopers have been intimidating investigating black voters as part of a fraud investigation that an internal memo has shown is largely closed.

Armed State Police knocking on doors of elderly black voters and telling the voters that the police are there because the voters voted. I don’t know about you, but if part of the voting process involved having armed government agents entering my home, I might choose to sit out the election. It seems that some black voters in Orlando feel the same way:

The president of the Orlando League of Voters is Ezzie Thomas, who is 73 years old. With his demonstrated ability to deliver the black vote in Orlando, Mr. Thomas is a tempting target for supporters of George W. Bush in a state in which the black vote may well spell the difference between victory and defeat.

The vile smell of voter suppression is all over this so-called investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Joseph Egan, an Orlando lawyer who represents Mr. Thomas, said: "The Voters League has workers who go into the community to do voter registration, drive people to the polls and help with absentee ballots. They are elderly women mostly. They get paid like $100 for four or five months' work, just to offset things like the cost of their gas. They see this political activity as an important contribution to their community. Some of the people in the community had never cast a ballot until the league came to their door and encouraged them to vote."

Now, said Mr. Egan, the fear generated by state police officers going into people's homes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to voting is threatening to undo much of the good work of the league. He said, "One woman asked me, 'Am I going to go to jail now because I voted by absentee ballot?' "

According to Mr. Egan, "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."

That’s from a Herbert column which ran last week. This morning, he delves a little deeper into this controversy.

The state police investigation into get-out-the-vote activities by blacks in Orlando, Fla., fits perfectly with the political aims of Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican Party.

The Republicans were stung in the 2000 presidential election when Al Gore became the first Democrat since 1948 to carry Orange County, of which Orlando is the hub. He could not have carried the county without the strong support of black voters, many of whom cast absentee ballots.

The G.O.P. was stung again in 2003 when Buddy Dyer, a Democrat, was elected mayor of Orlando. He won a special election to succeed Glenda Hood, a three-term Republican who was appointed Florida secretary of state by Governor Bush. Mr. Dyer was re-elected last March. As with Mr. Gore, the black vote was an important factor.

These two election reverses have upset Republicans in Orange County and statewide. Moreover, the anxiety over Democratic gains in Orange County is entwined with the very real fear among party stalwarts that Florida might go for John Kerry in this year's presidential election.

It is in this context that two of the ugliest developments of the current campaign season should be viewed.

"A Democrat can't win a statewide election in Florida without a high voter turnout - both at the polls and with absentee ballots - of African-Americans," said a man who is close to the Republican establishment in Florida but asked not to be identified. "It's no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible. Black votes are Democratic votes, and there are a lot of them in Florida."

The two ugly developments - both focused on race - were the heavy-handed investigation by Florida state troopers of black get-out-the-vote efforts in Orlando, and the state's blatant attempt to purge blacks from voter rolls through the use of a flawed list of supposed felons that contained the names of thousands of African-Americans and, conveniently, very few Hispanics.

Florida is one of only a handful of states that bar convicted felons from voting, unless they successfully petition to have their voting rights restored. The state's "felon purge" list had to be abandoned by Glenda Hood, the secretary of state (and, yes, former mayor of Orlando), after it became known that the flawed list would target blacks but not Hispanics, who are more likely in Florida to vote Republican. The list also contained the names of thousands of people, most of them black, who should not have been on the list at all.
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Meanwhile, the sending of state troopers into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando was said by officials to be a response to allegations of voter fraud in last March's mayoral election. But the investigation went forward despite findings in the spring that appeared to show that the allegations were unfounded.

Why go forward anyway? Well, consider that the prolonged investigation dovetails exquisitely with that crucial but unspoken mission of the G.O.P. in Florida: to keep black voter turnout as low as possible. The interrogation of elderly black men and women in their homes has already frightened many voters and intimidated elderly get-out-the-vote volunteers.
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From the G.O.P. perspective, it doesn't really matter whether anyone is arrested in the Orlando investigation, or even if a crime was committed. The idea, in Orange County and elsewhere, is to send a chill through the democratic process, suppressing opposing votes by whatever means are available.

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.
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"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.

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