[Mb-civic] Florida election process again

[Barbara Siomos]

More hanky panky in the Florida election process.

Barbara
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    U.S. Civil Rights Panel Blasts 
    Florida's Felon-Voter List 
    By Erika Bolstad 
    Miami Herald 
    Thursday 15 July 2004
 
    Washington - The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, concerned
that there was a deliberate attempt to keep some Florida voters from
casting ballots, will ask the Department of Justice to investigate how
the state was planning to use a controversial list to remove convicted
felons from the voter rolls.
 
    The list was abandoned Saturday after media reports
uncovered a flaw in a database that failed to capture most felons who
classified themselves as Hispanic. The state was already under fire for
the list by civil rights groups after The Herald reported that it
included people who had their right to vote restored.
 
    "If it was intentional, it may well have been a criminal
violation of the Civil Rights Act," said Commissioner Christopher Edley
Jr., a professor at Harvard Law School. "It's not just about a sloppy
database, it's not just about bureaucracy strapped for resources. It's
about the deprivation of a fundamental civil right."
 
    The commission, which met today in Washington to discuss the
state's felon list and electronic voting issues, has a contentious
history with Florida leaders. After the 2000 presidential election,
commissioners released a draft assessment of the election in Florida
that called state leaders "grossly derelict in fulfilling their
responsibilities."
 
    The language in the final report was toned down, but
commission Chairwoman Mary Francis Berry made it clear Thursday that she
has't forgotten about election problems in Florida.
 
    Although the felon list now won't be implemented before the
November election, commissioners say they're concerned about how
individual election officers will handle the issue of removing felons
from their voter rolls.
 
    They fear the decision will result in inequities across
Florida's 67 counties, since the state has now left it up to individual
election supervisors to create their own system of removing ineligible
voters. In the Bush v. Gore decision that decided the 2000 presidential
election, Edley pointed out, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that
different recount procedures in each county violated the equal
protection clause of the Constitution.
 
    'With all due respect to the secretary of state in Florida,
it's simply not sufficient to toss up your hands and and say, `The
counties will take care of it,´ " Edley said.