> Tonight BBC TV to Reveal New Florida Vote Scandal
> Republican "Caging List"
>
> BBC Television News On-Line
> Tuesday, October 26, 2004
> Greg Palast, reporting
>
> A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in
> Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt
> voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight
> investigation reveals.
>
> (Watch it tonight at
> news.bbc.co.uk begining at
> 5.30pm EST, available for 24 hours.)
>
> Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in
> Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC,
> contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".
>
> It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and
> traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.
>
> An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told
> Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is
> to challenge voters on election day."
>
> Ion Sancho, a Democrat, noted that Florida law allows political party
> operatives inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot.
>
>
> ---Mass challenges---
>
> They may then only vote "provisionally" after signing an affidavit
> attesting to their legal voting status.
>
> Mass challenges have never occurred in Florida. Indeed, says Mr Sancho,
> not one challenge has been made to a voter "in the 16 years I've been
> supervisor of elections."
>
> "Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process
> and cause chaos on election day; and discourage voters from voting."
>
> Sancho calls it "intimidation." And it may be illegal.
>
> In Washington, well-known civil rights attorney, Ralph Neas, noted that US
> federal law prohibits targeting challenges to voters, even if there is a
> basis for the challenge, if race is a factor in targeting the voters.
>
> The list of Jacksonville voters covers an area with a majority of black
> residents.
>
> When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list, Republican
> spokespersons claim the list merely records returned mail from either
> fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered
> voters to verify their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign
> literature.
>
> Republican state campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher stated the
> list was not put together "in order to create" a challenge list, but
> refused to say it would not be used in that manner.
>
> Rather, she did acknowledge that the party's poll workers will be
> instructed to challenge voters, "Where it's stated in the law."
>
> There was no explanation as to why such clerical matters would be sent to
> top officials of the Bush campaign in Florida and Washington.
>
>
> ---Private detective---
>
> In Jacksonville, to determine if Republicans were using the lists or other
> means of intimidating voters, we filmed a private detective filming every
> "early voter" - the majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle
> with blacked-out windows.
>
> The private detective claimed not to know who was paying for his all-day
> services.
>
> On the scene, Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown said the surveillance
> operation was part of a campaign of intimidation tactics used by the
> Republican Party to intimate and scare off African American voters, almost
> all of whom are registered Democrats.
>
> Greg Palast reporting. The film will be broadcast by Newsnight tonight,
> Tuesday, 26 October, 2004 at 2230 BST (6:30pm New York time).
>
>
> ==================
> Contact: media@gregpalast.com
>
>
> View Greg Palast's BBC Television film, "Bush Family Fortunes," available
> this week on DVD in an updated edition from The Disinformation Company at
> gregpalast.com
>
>
> To receive Greg's investigative reports click here:
> gregpalast.com
>
>
>
> news.bbc.co.uk |
