VOTING RIGHTS
Excerpts from Online News Hour: with Jim Lehrer,
December 15, 2000
pbs.org
Black voters in Florida claim logistical barriers infringed on their right to vote.
Kwame Holman investigates. Online Special:
JIM LEHRER: Kwame Holman has the Florida voting story.
KWEISE MFUME: People weren't allowed to vote. People were told they were felons and couldn't vote when they were not, people were turned away at the times the polls closed, bilingual translators were not allowed in polling places for our Haitian brothers and sisters and our Latino brothers and sisters……."
KWAME HOLMAN: Spurred in part by massive registration and get- out-the-vote efforts, record numbers of black and other minority voters turned out in Florida on November 7. Nine out of ten African American voters in Florida supported Al Gore. Now those communities are rife with stories of people who tried to vote but for various reasons could not. At this point, nearly a half dozen investigations are under way, all focused on whether African Americans in particular were discriminated against regarding the right to vote. And Florida is one of a handful of states where such acts easily could constitute a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. Miami-based voting rights attorney Thomasina Williams says that would be true of violations that occurred in any of six Florida counties known to have discriminated against minority voters in the past.
THOMASINA WILLIAMS: What you have to show under Section 2 is that there was a disparate impact on voters in the African American community or the Hispanic community or a particular group, not necessarily that there was intent, but the impact of that was to disenfranchise or to dilute the vote of this particular group.
KWAME HOLMAN: The NAACP's MFUME says on election day, his organization began hearing about problems shortly after the polls opened.
KWEISE MFUME: It was so bad again in Florida that by 2:00 in the afternoon we deployed 200 additional volunteers here. By 3:00, I was on the phone with the Justice Department asking for help. No one knew on Election Day that Florida would be and have the kind of consequence that it has now. So these people who are here are here in a very serious way to petition for the redress of our grievances that we have to say as a nation that every vote must be protected and that people must be allowed the right to vote.
KWAME HOLMAN: Sedra Jackson, a naturalized citizen and a long- time Election Day clerk in Miami, was dismayed by what she saw this year.
SEDRA JACKSON: It was the frustration in trying to reach central elections office, just to verify whether or not an individual could vote-- just sheer frustration and not being able to get through. The lines were exceptionally busy.
KWAME HOLMAN: Jackson says at least 50, mostly minority voters were turned away from her precinct because their voter registration could not be verified. We spoke to four such would-be voters from South Florida. Lorna Reid says she got no notice that the polling place where she voted for years was closed and no signs told her where she should vote.
LORNA REID: So for the entire day, you know, I ran around from polling stations to polling stations and still was unable to vote.
KWAME HOLMAN: Donisse Desouza says poll workers couldn't find her name on the rolls and then told her it was too late to vote.
DONISSE DESOUZA: I've been disenfranchised, and my vote has been robbed from me.
KWAME HOLMAN: Admatha Israel says the poll clerk at his precinct refused even to try to verify that he was registered.
ADMATHA ISRAEL: I did everything I could from getting off work early to go vote, to getting my teacher to take me to the polls, you know, and motivating my friends, trying to get my brothers and sisters to go do that, you know. So for persons such as myself, who went to all this trouble to try to vote and got turned away, you know, it makes you not want to go do it anymore."
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KWAME HOLMAN: Attorney Williams is helping the NAACP Investigate the various charges and says minorities were disproportionately prevented from voting by elections officials' inability to confirm registrations.
WILLIAMS: They never heard from people because they simply couldn't get through on the telephone lines. I mean, I don't see that they really have an appreciation for what was going on in the field. I think if you talk to people who were poll workers in addition to people themselves who were trying to vote, you get a very different story in a number of predominantly, very heavy black precincts.
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KWAME HOLMAN: "One of the most substantial charges regarding the Florida vote involved a purge of voter rolls"...............
SPOKESPERSON: Unfortunately, the information's coming out now that there were literally thousands of people whose names were purged from the voter registration roles who had no felony convictions, who had never moved, just faulty information coming from that contractor.
KWAME HOLMAN: Alison Bethel is director of civil rights for the Florida attorney general's office. She acknowledges the voting list purge may have deleted valid voter names from the rolls.
ALISON BETHEL: Well, we have received reports from people claiming that they were incorrectly advised, that they were a convicted felon. Some received letters prior to the election, others did not learn that they were so incorrectly listed until they showed up at the polls to vote. And apparently the company that provided the information to the state officials of who was and who was not a convicted felon, that information was flawed and that's what led to the problem. It's wrong and yes, it impacted the minority community in a disproportionate way. " |
