Published Friday, December 1, 2000, in the Miami Herald
BLOCK FOR JUMP
Since 1868, it has been illegal for felons to cast ballots in Florida.
Hundreds of felons cast votes illegally
BY DAVID KIDWELL, PHIL LONG AND GEOFF DOUGHERTY
dkidwell@herald.com
At least 445 Florida felons voted illegally on Nov. 7, casting another cloud
over a disputed presidential election already mired in legal challenges, a
Herald investigation has found.
The tainted votes -- found in a review of nearly half a million votes cast
in 12 Florida counties -- provide evidence that the presidential race was
influenced by thousands of ineligible voters. Nearly six million voters in
Florida's 67 counties cast ballots.
They also point out the failure of Florida's multimillion-dollar effort to
prevent election fraud by eliminating dead and illegal voters from the
registration rolls.
``This just goes to show that the most expensive voting equipment in the
world is worthless when the voting rolls are that filthy,'' said Deborah
Phillips, president of the nonprofit Voting Integrity Project in Arlington,
Va. ``It's just an invitation to lower the integrity of the election.''
TWO KEY COUNTIES
The majority of the illegal votes -- 330 -- were cast in Palm Beach and
Duval counties, which decided not to participate in the statewide effort
this year to purge felons, dead people and double registrants from the
rolls.
Elections supervisors in those counties argue the state database compiled by
the Florida Division of Elections, at a price of $4 million, was peppered
with errors and mismatches.
Even so, most other counties -- including Miami-Dade and Broward -- used it
to scrub thousands of ineligible voters from the rolls, as required by state
law.
LEGAL CHALLENGES
The lapses in Palm Beach and Duval counties could become significant if
Democrats win any of their legal challenges and take the narrow lead away
from Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Nearly 75 percent of the illegal
ballots discovered by The Herald were cast by registered Democrats.
The votes could be seized upon by the Bush campaign to argue that a large
number of illegal votes were probably cast for his opponent, outweighing the
effect of any recount.
``It's a very powerful argument,'' said Robert Jarvis, a law professor at
Nova Southeastern University.
Since 1868, it has been illegal for felons to cast ballots in Florida, one
of 14 states with an arduous paperwork process for felons to have their
rights restored. The provision has prompted a federal lawsuit by civil
rights groups who allege it is discriminatory against blacks.
The Herald found 62 robbers, 56 drug dealers, 45 killers, 16 rapists and
seven kidnappers who cast ballots. At least two who voted are pictured on
the state's online registry of sexual offenders.
`TON OF US'
``There are a ton of us out there,'' said William Herman, 37, of Lake Worth,
sentenced to five years in prison in 1989 for negligent homicide with a
motor vehicle. ``It shouldn't be that way, but when they give you a voter
registration card, hey, what are you supposed to do?
Clarence Eden Williams, 77, of Pahokee, also voted. His picture is posted on
the state registry of sexual offenders for his crimes against children. His
son was surprised his father cast a ballot.
``He's got Alzheimer's, and he can't even carry on a conversation anymore,''
said Clarence Williams III.
The Herald review included counties where voter lists could be obtained --
about 8 percent of the 5.9 million votes cast on Nov. 7. It encompassed all
votes cast in Palm Beach and Pasco counties, most votes cast in Duval
County, and only absentee votes in Miami-Dade, Broward, Lee, Leon,
Hillsborough, Clay and the Panhandle counties of Escambia, Okaloosa and Bay.
FINDING FELONS
To find felony voters, The Herald compared a list of voters in those
counties with a Department of Corrections database listing felons who had
served at least a year in prison. If the pattern found in the study is the
same statewide, more than 5,000 felons likely cast illegal ballots.
Duval County had the highest turnout among convicted felons with at least
235 voting illegally.
Elections Supervisor John Stafford, like several other elections officials,
said he didn't trust a purge list provided by the state Elections Division
in Tallahasse.
``We weren't going to take that chance and delete everybody,'' said John
Stafford, Duval's election supervisor. ``We'd have been in a world of
trouble. It is almost a joke because there are so many errors in it.''
In fact, one of Stafford's employees found her husband's name on the list of
felons by mistake, she said.
Stafford said his office sent out a letter to felons identified on the state
database, and were inundated by telephone calls from irate residents -- some
who said they had been misidentified as felons and others angry they'd been
disenfranchised over decades-old crimes.
```We're talking about a crime when I was 19,'' said Theron McDaniel, of
Jacksonville, convicted of dealing in stolen property in 1977. ``I'm 42
years old and they're still holding that over me?
``As a matter of fact I'm a deacon in my church,'' he said. ``I don't know
anybody who's perfect in this life.''
PURGE IGNORED
Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore ignored the state
purge list after a well-publicized error that mistakenly identified
thousands of Floridians guilty of misdemeanors as having felony convictions.
She declined comment for this article.
Herald staff writers William Yardley, Sara Olkon, Jason Grotto and Tina
Cummings contributed to this report.
herald.com. |
