445 Florida felons voted illegally; 75% cast by registered Democrats...

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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.

445 Florida felons voted illegally; 75% cast by registered Democrats...

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), December 01, 2000

Answers

I wonder if any of the felons voted for Buchanan?

-- Dr. Pibb (dr.pibb@zdnetonebox.com), December 02, 2000.

Lyndon LaRouch would be the obvious choice for felons. LOL!

-- Dr. Pibb (dr.pibb@zdnetonebox.com), December 02, 2000.

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