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Battleground State Florida Still Rife With Election Issues
Florida is ground zero for every major voting problem in the country... If it happens in Florida, it's likely a problem in other places - and if it happens somewhere else, it has probably already occurred in the Sunshine State. Butterfly chads in 2000, voting technology issues in 2004 and 2006, laws and policies that disqualify voters and suppress the vote, felon disfranchisement, registration issues - these are just a few of the hot-button issues that Florida deals with every election year (and in between). Voter registration is likely to top the list of issues that the state of Florida has not properly addressed prior to the November election. On September 8, Secretary of State Kurt Browning implemented a new "no match" law, which requires a match between the driver's license number, Florida identification number ("Florida ID"), or the last four digits of their Social Security number entered on the voter registration application with a record in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or Social Security Administration databases. A "no match" result could even be due to clerk's data-entry error. If a voter applicant's information cannot be "matched," the supervisor of elections must notify the applicant by mail that he or she must provide a copy of his or her ID by mail, fax, email, or in person to the supervisor before voting to become properly registered and allowed to vote a regular ballot. If a voter has a Florida driver's license (or a Florida non-driver ID card), they must provide a copy of the required identification. If an unmatched applicant has not produced a copy of the relevant ID before Election Day, the applicant will be permitted to vote, but only a provisional ballot, which will not count unless he or she produces a copy of the relevant ID to elections officials by 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday after Election Day. The ACLU of Florida called on Governor Charlie Crist and Sec. Browning to suspend implementation of the "no match" law until after the election, pending the result of a lawsuit challenging the law. At minimum, the Secretary of State should issue a directive to Supervisors of Election allowing them to resolve any matching issues at all polling places, and not just at the elections offices. Some Supervisors (Pinellas County's among others) have already said they are willing to do this. This action would demonstrate to voters that Florida is committed to an open and fair election. Learn more about Florida's "no match" law and take action. But voter registration is only one component to the voting issues trifecta in Florida. ACLU efforts in Florida have led to new voting technology, capable of conducting meaningful recounts. After the 2000 election debacle, the 15 most populous counties that contain the majority of registered voters implemented new touchscreen technology in a knee-jerk reaction, which was a desperate and expensive mistake. That move led to the problems we saw in 2004 and 2006, specifically with the contested election in Sarasota's 13th Congressional District. The ACLU sued for a revote, since a meaningful recount was impossible. This year, for the first time, Floridians will vote using optical scan machines, which is the third evolution of voting technology in as many presidential elections. The chief voting issue in Florida, though, remains felon disfranchisement. In Florida, close to one million individuals convicted of a felony are stripped of their civil rights (including the right to vote), even after completion of their sentences. Loss of civil rights takes away not only the right to vote, but also the right to hold public office and serve on a jury. Further, until civil rights are restored, individuals cannot qualify for certain types of state licenses necessary for many jobs, such as those in the construction and medical fields. Gov. Crist claimed in April of 2007 that he made refranchisement automatic for hundreds of thousands of ex-offenders in Florida who were convicted of non-violent offenses, but a year and a half later, we can see that the state has not walked the walk. Thousands of refranchised voters may not have even known that they were eligible because the state did not adequately get out the word. The ACLU, along with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, launched a statewide advertising campaign in 2008 to get the word out. Much work remains to make restoration of civil rights automatic for all Floridians, including removing the precondition that restitution must be paid prior to restoration of civil rights. While restitution should be paid when ordered by a court, the victim is less likely to receive compensation if the ex-offender is impeded from earning a living to accomplish that. Voting issues abound in Florida: voter registration, large turnout of first-time voters coupled with insufficient numbers of trained pollworkers, new voting technology, and hundreds of thousands of disfranchised voters - just to name a few. All Floridians deserve a fair and open election. If you need information about your rights at the polls, download our Florida Voter Empowerment Card at: www.aclufl.org/issues/voting_rights/vec.cfm - Howard Simon, Executive Director, and Muslima Lewis, Director, Racial Justice / Voting Rights Projects, ACLU of Florida Tags: Voting Rights Symposium
U.N. Expert Investigates Racism in FloridaDuring his 1-1/2 day visit to Miami, Mr. Doudou Diène, U.N. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, race discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, was presented with a detailed, and frequently emotional, picture of the many forms and textures of race discrimination and racism in Miami and Florida, generally. The visit began with a tour of urban Miami, during which he saw the stark juxtaposition of affluent communities and the communities of color that were deliberatively and systematically destroyed to make room for condos, art galleries and commercial retail developments. Mr. Diène saw and heard much about Overtown. Famous performers like Count Basie and Billie Holiday were frequent visitors to Overtown and stayed there after their Miami Beach performances (since Jim Crow laws barred them from hotels on the Beach). As Mr. Diène witnessed the blight, disappearing stock of public and affordable housing, and the boarded up businesses, he heard about the efforts to destroy this once vibrant African-American community. Not only was it was dissected by I-95 (one of our tour guides pointed to a concrete support pillar for I-95 which now stands on the site of the home she grew up in), but neglect, aggressive (but unequally enforced) code enforcement practices, aggressive policing, and the fraudulent siphoning of tax dollars to private developers all were tools used to undermine the community’s infrastructure and displace its residents. Overtown activists and residents described their dedicated fight to preserve and regain control of this historic neighborhood. On Monday, Mr. Diène conducted a series of public hearings. The first presenters painted a picture of Miami from all perspectives of the African diaspora: Afro-Cuban, African-American, African, Haitian, and English-speaking Caribbean. Against this backdrop, Mr. Diène heard compelling testimony from Latino and African American domestic and agricultural workers. A third generation farmworker told how the ground near Lake Apopka that she literally crawled on for decades had been contaminated by pesticides; she spoke emotionally about the resulting deaths of Lake Apopka farmworkers and how the government is pouring resources into addressing the impact that the decades of pollution have had on the alligators and birds of the region, but no resources at all are being used to address the deadly toll that the pesticides have taken on the women and men who worked the contaminated land. A domestic worker described the inhumane treatment experienced by the many women who leave their families and home countries lured by false promises. She talked emotionally about how she and others were denied adequate food and water and forced to work 16-17 hour days with very little time off. Prize-winning author Edwidge Danticat told the story of her uncle, Joseph Dantica, the family patriarch and a leader of his Haitian community and congregation. In 2004, at the age of 81, he was forced to flee Haiti when U.N. soldiers chose to use the rooftop of his church to wage a fire fight with gang members, who later sought retribution against him. Despite having a multiple-entry visa that allowed him to come in and out of the U.S. freely for 30 years, Joseph Dantica was detained upon his entry in the U.S. and his medicines for high blood pressure and heart problems were taken away. He died in DHS custody. (Independent medical experts attribute his death to the fact that he was not allowed to take the medications on which he had relied for years.) Mr. Diène’s visit ended with a description of the rise of Islamophobia, and the overt (and often officially sanctioned) hate-mongering that flourishes in the U.S. during this post-9/11 era. Most compelling and moving was the testimony from and about the strong and unyielding women and men directly impacted by racism and race discrimination in Florida - people who refuse to be victims or defeated, but instead use their own experiences to fight for the dignity of all and for the empowerment of their communities. (Note: to ensure the privacy of the people who spoke with Mr. Diène, their stories are described here only with their express permission.) |
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