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NAACP Hears the Chilling Details of Voter Manipulation A Calculated Plan to Lessen the Gore Vote in Black Areas |
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By Susan Guberman-Garcia
Edited for length by Equality Florida
The hearing was orderly, well run, and transcribed by a court reporter and was presided over by NAACP President (and former Congressional Black Caucus chairman) Kweisi Mfume. The hearing was much like a Congressional hearing...There were several panels of witnesses, two (2) to four (4) people per panel. The witnesses included voters who were denied the right to vote, NAACP activists who worked the get-out-the-vote effort all day, NAACP phone-standby volunteers who worked the phones fielding election-day complaints, poll workers and news media people. The witnesses were all credible and impressive, their information detailed and often accompanied by notes with names, dates, places. I would not hesitate to call any of these people as witnesses if I were handling a lawsuit on their behalf. Witnesses testified that they (and family members and others in their presence) were denied the right to vote because they "were not on the rolls "even though some of them had their voter registration cards as well as identification showing their names and addresses. This violates Florida law. In many cases, the poll workers who refused them declined to make any effort to validate their status and told them to "come back later." Some poll workers were sympathetic and attempted to get approval for the voters to go ahead and vote but were denied by "headquarters." This is Very Important:
And in fact, many of the denied voters asked for an affidavit or something in writing to prove they had attempted to vote and ALL such requests were refused. NONE were given the chance to cast a "challenge ballot" (which I gather is similar to the "provisional ballot " that is used in California when there is a dispute as to whether someone is entitled to vote or not). The president of Haitian Women of Miami testified that she was threatened with arrest for attempting to enter the polling booth to help first-time Haitian voters who needed translation assistance, and even though she presented a copy of the statute that permits such assistance inside the booth she was told that she would be arrested if she did not leave, and the police were actually called.? None of the Creole speakers who asked for Creole ballots (which were printed for the first time this election) were given them, and although there were Creole-speaking volunteers present to assist those voters, they were denied the right to do so. Witnesses testified that they and others who were African-American (but not white) voters were asked to provide BOTH photo ID and a current voter registration card and many who could not do so were denied the right to vote even though the law does not require that the voters present both ID and voter registration cards. A newswoman who spent all day at various polling places witnessed the above time and time again. When she tried to intervene, she was threatened with arrest. This newswoman (who happens to be white and a former policewoman) accompanied one black voter to SIX polling places as she was turned away time after time because, despite her having a voter card and ID, she was told "this is not your polling place. Finally, she returned to her original polling place and was allowed, finally, to vote. The newswoman testified that at one polling place... there were numerous police cars who were stopping African- American voters and asking for ID and "what are you doing here?" She saw them stop one elderly man after he left the polls, order him to "assume the position" and question him, as he tried to explain he had just voted (and was wearing a button that said "I voted "). When she tried to intervene, she was told to move on or she would be arrested, and when she did so out of fear for her safety, she was followed for several miles by a police car. This newswoman, who is white and a former policewoman, broke down in tears because she was ashamed that she left the scene. The newswoman testified that she was leaked a list of over a thousand absentee voters by an election official. This was a list of absentee voters who were disqualified for being "felons." Their votes were not counted, but they were not informed of the rejection of their vote or the opportunity to challenge it. The Republican commissioner who leaked the list told the newswoman that the instructions were to NOT notify the rejected absentee voters of their disqualification. The newswoman happened to know one of the people on the list, and it is someone she knows has never been convicted of a crime, let alone a felony. Many witnesses testified that people who came in to vote were required to answer a litany of questions even though they were on the rolls and had ID. The questions had to do with whether they had been convicted of a felony since the last time they voted, was their address correct, etc. Only African-Americans appeared to be asked these questions. A police lieutenant testified that a box of ballots was sitting in? the police station. Someone called in that it had not been picked up. The police department claimed that they had tried to call the election commission on Friday, but nobody answered because it was a holiday. As of now (actually, the hearing was Saturday but C-SPAN aired it this morning), the box is still sitting in the police evidence room, sealed with evidence tape. A minister testified that nobody ever came to pick up the box at his church (a polling place for his precinct) and still has not done so! Handicapped people were able to get into some polling places, but the polling booths were not acceptable to them, and requests for special ballots or other assistance was denied in African-American precincts, according to the witnesses. I could go on, but is it necessary? There are thousands of denied voters. Does anyone not know a pattern and practice of obstruction when they see it?? ? Does anyone not see the last gasp of the OLD SOUTH being called upon one more time to put its own man into the White House? Where is the News Media? Why is this damning evidence not on the front page of every newspaper in the country? Why is the systematic denial of the Voting Rights Act tolerated? There is no remedy other than to allow every single denied voter his or her vote. NOW. And we who have volunteered to uphold justice have the responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure that occurs,? whether it is volunteer in the legal fights, write letters, emails and faxes, raise or give money, call our news media, call our congressional people, or if necessary, engage in peaceful civil disobedience in memory of Martin Luther King, the little girls who were burned to death in a church and every racist atrocity that has been? brought back to life by the shame in? Florida? . If not now, when? If not us, who? The racial profiling of the African American Community is the real constitutional crisis. |
