Wednesday January 10 4:28 PM ET

Black Voters Challenge Florida Election System

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida election officials systematically excluded thousands of minority voters from the November presidential election by purging them from voter rolls, illegally barring them from polls and using faulty vote machines, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The class action suit, filed in U.S. District Court by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a group of black voters, seeks sweeping reforms of the Florida voting system that caused chaos in the recent U.S. presidential election, ultimately won by George W. Bush after a fierce legal battle.

``There was evidence of massive disenfranchisement of people of color during the presidential election. This election in Florida was conducted in a manner which was unfair, illegal, immoral and undemocratic,'' Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida NAACP, said at a news conference. ``It was a perfect example of institutionalized racism.''

While the chaotic aftermath of the Florida election -- won by the former Texas governor by just a few hundred votes -- centered on punch-card ballots and the ability of vote-counting machines to read them, discrimination against minority voters went much deeper, rights group leaders said.

The lawsuit claimed black voters were victims of ''systematic'' attempts to keep them from voting by illegally dropping them from voter rolls, improperly handling their registrations so they did not appear on voter lists and turning them away at the polls.

Election officials also discriminated against blacks by disproportionately using ``error-prone and substandard'' voting machines in minority precincts, the lawsuit alleged.

``The punch card violations are just the tip of the iceberg,'' said Anita Hodgkiss of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The lawsuit did not seek to overturn the results of the November election but several plaintiffs said they did not trust ongoing efforts by state officials to reform Florida's voting system.

A task force appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president-elect's brother, was meeting in Tallahassee this week to recommend changes, possibly including new computerized or optical scanning machines.

``Why would you trust Jeb Bush to fix it?'' asked Miami black leader Rev. Victor Curry.

Todd Cox, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said it was ironic the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ruling in favor of Bush that ended manual recounts of thousands of ballots, cited the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

``That amendment was adopted to protect recently freed slaves and yet thousands of black voters were denied their right to vote,'' he said.

The suit named as defendants Florida's Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris and elections director Clay Shaw, the state's top two election officials, as well as supervisors in seven Florida counties.

Harris and Shaw were not available for comment.

The lawsuit asked the court to bar punch-card voting, force the state to adopt statewide voting standards, guard voters' rights at polling stations, end voter-roll purges and take other steps to safeguard voting rights.

Curry said the chaotic election had cost the United States its ``moral voice'' and blamed President-elect Bush and Harris.

``They determined they were going to win this election by any means necessary, even if it meant to violate the principles of democracy,'' he said.

Valerie Buford-Wells, of Pompano Beach, Florida, a plaintiff, said she was a longtime voter at the same address for 20 years and had re-registered to vote recently but was denied a ballot.

``They said that my name was not on the list and I could not vote,'' she said.

-- Class Action Suit (civil@rights.explosion), January 10, 2001

Answers

bump to the top

-- Mr. Bump (I_@m_mr.bump), January 11, 2001.

This is the beginning of a new era in Civil Rights. I don't think African Americans have been as mobilized as we're going to see within the next few years. They won't forget this, and they'll make sure that the country doesn't forget it either.

-- We Can't Go Back in Time (civil@rights.explosion), January 11, 2001.

Frank's cynical prediction:

Cost of next Presidential election: probably tripled.

Number of *totally* UNinformed voters: increased due to "get out the vote" efforts without associated education of same voters.

Spin: "a victory for democracy".

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 11, 2001.