tom_thinks
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Florida Purges Valid Black Voters
Read thist r u t h o u t - Florida Purges Valid Black Voters:
Is any one surprised? This is what the list was meant to do, the reason why it exists. Hopefully the local supervisors of elections will ignore the supposed 'requirements' and allow these people to vote anyway.
The Miami Herald has created a searchable version of the list here.
'It's a throwback to a very ugly period in American history - a time when state officials in the deep South threw up irrelevant stumbling blocks to keep black people from voting,' said Randall Marshall, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
But administrators of the Florida Division of Elections, in the midst of a controversial effort to remove ineligible voters from Florida's rolls, argue that they are following state law.
'Florida law requires that a felon must register to vote after being granted clemency in order for that registration to be valid,' Secretary of State Glenda Hood said in a news release issued Friday.
Hood's remarks came in response to a Herald report Friday that revealed that at least 2,119 voters on the state's list of potentially ineligible voters had received clemency after their convictions and appear entitled to vote. Black Democrats make up the largest portion of the list, The Herald found.
Is any one surprised? This is what the list was meant to do, the reason why it exists. Hopefully the local supervisors of elections will ignore the supposed 'requirements' and allow these people to vote anyway.
The Miami Herald has created a searchable version of the list here.
posted by Tom, 7/04/2004 10:45:00 AM
