Florida, 2004. Here we go again.

[MonsterMark]

Looks like more court challenges on the way. I just love how Democrats accuse Republicans of suppressing the vote and how every vote counts, but the hypocrites just can't help themselves, can they?


http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/413583|top|09-13-2004::18:47|reuters.html

By Jim Loney


MIAMI (Reuters) - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name can appear on Florida ballots for the election, despite a court order to the contrary, Florida's elections chief told officials on Monday in a move that could help President Bush in the key swing state.

The Florida Democratic Party reacted with outrage, calling the move "blatant partisan maneuvering" by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, and vowed to fight it.

In a memo to Florida's 67 county supervisors of elections, Division of Elections director Dawn Roberts said the uncertainty of Hurricane Ivan, which could hit parts of the state by week's end, forced her to act.

The action came in an ongoing legal battle over whether Nader should be allowed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party candidate.

Nader, an independent nominated by the Reform Party, was a presidential candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes over then-Vice President Al Gore. Analysts said most of the nearly 98,000 votes Nader got in Florida would have gone to Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey issued a temporary injunction last week preventing the state from putting Nader on the 2004 ballot, siding with a Democratic challenge that the Reform Party did not qualify as a national party under state law. A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Wednesday. But Roberts said Hurricane Ivan, which is headed for Florida's Gulf coast, had raised "a substantial question as to when such a hearing" will be held.

 

[Punisher]

Looks like more court challenges on the way. I just love how Democrats accuse Republicans of suppressing the vote and how every vote counts, but the hypocrites just can't help themselves, can they?


http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/413583|top|09-13-2004::18:47|reuters.html

By Jim Loney


MIAMI (Reuters) - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name can appear on Florida ballots for the election, despite a court order to the contrary, Florida's elections chief told officials on Monday in a move that could help President Bush in the key swing state.

The Florida Democratic Party reacted with outrage, calling the move "blatant partisan maneuvering" by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, and vowed to fight it.

In a memo to Florida's 67 county supervisors of elections, Division of Elections director Dawn Roberts said the uncertainty of Hurricane Ivan, which could hit parts of the state by week's end, forced her to act.

The action came in an ongoing legal battle over whether Nader should be allowed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party candidate.

Nader, an independent nominated by the Reform Party, was a presidential candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes over then-Vice President Al Gore. Analysts said most of the nearly 98,000 votes Nader got in Florida would have gone to Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey issued a temporary injunction last week preventing the state from putting Nader on the 2004 ballot, siding with a Democratic challenge that the Reform Party did not qualify as a national party under state law. A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Wednesday. But Roberts said Hurricane Ivan, which is headed for Florida's Gulf coast, had raised "a substantial question as to when such a hearing" will be held.

Heh I dunno how to feel about nader, hes a waste really but he does have the right to run so if its legal even though it will just hurt Kerry I think he should be allowed to run.

 

[JohnnyBz00LS]

How are the Dems "supressing votes"?? And how does a division of elections director have jurisdiction over a judge? :slam Oh YEAH! I forgot, the Florida ballots have already been "bought and paid for" by the GOP and their henchmen! Silly me. Due process is once again circumvented by the arrogant "above the law" GOP.

 

[pepperman]

The Democrats are getting desperate. :L

 

[97silverlsc]

Dems aren't desperate, republicans are thugs.


A chill in Florida

BOB HERBERT

The state police investigation into get-out-the-vote activities by blacks in Orlando, Florida, fits perfectly with the political aims of Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican Party.

The Republicans were stung in the 2000 presidential election when Al Gore became the first Democrat since 1948 to carry Orange County, of which Orlando is the hub. He could not have carried the county without the strong support of black voters, many of whom cast absentee ballots.

The GOP was stung again in 2003 when Buddy Dyer, a Democrat, was elected mayor of Orlando. He won a special election to succeed Glenda Hood, a three-term Republican who was appointed Florida secretary of state by Jeb Bush. Dyer was reelected last March. As with Gore, the black vote was an important factor.

These two election reverses have upset Republicans in Orange County and statewide. Moreover, the anxiety over Democratic gains in Orange County is entwined with the very real fear among party stalwarts that Florida might go for John Kerry in this year?s presidential election.

It is in this context that two of the ugliest developments of the current campaign season should be viewed.

?A Democrat can?t win a statewide election in Florida without a high voter turnout -- both at the polls and with absentee ballots -- of African-Americans,? said a man who is close to the Republican establishment in Florida but asked not to be identified. ?It?s no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible. Black votes are Democratic votes, and there are a lot of them in Florida.?

The two ugly developments -- both focused on race -- were the heavy-handed investigation by Florida state troopers of black get-out-the-vote efforts in Orlando, and the state?s blatant attempt to purge blacks from voter rolls through the use of a list of supposed felons that contained the names of thousands of blacks and, conveniently, very few Hispanics.

Florida is one of only a handful of states that bar convicted felons from voting, unless they successfully petition to have their voting rights restored. The state?s ?felon purge? list had to be abandoned by Glenda Hood, the secretary of state (and, yes, former mayor of Orlando), after it became known that the list would target blacks but not Hispanics, who are more likely in Florida to vote Republican. The list also contained the names of thousands of people, most of them black, who should not have been on the list at all.

Hood, handpicked by the governor to succeed the notorious Katherine Harris as secretary of state, was forced to admit that the felons list was a mess. She said the problems were unintentional. What clearly was intentional was the desire of Hood and Bush to keep the list secret. It was disclosed only as a result of lawsuits filed under Florida?s sunshine law.

Meanwhile, the sending of state troopers into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando was said by officials to be a response to reports of voter fraud in last March?s mayoral election. But the investigation went forward despite findings in the spring that appeared to show that the allegations were unfounded.

Why go forward anyway? Well, consider that the prolonged investigation dovetails exquisitely with that crucial but unspoken mission of the GOP in Florida: to keep black voter turnout as low as possible. The interrogation of elderly black men and women in their homes has already frightened many voters and intimidated elderly get-out-the-vote volunteers.

The use of state troopers to zero in on voter turnout efforts is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, in Florida. But the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Guy Tunnell, who was also handpicked by Jeb Bush, has been unfazed by the mounting criticism of this use of the state police. His spokesmen have said a ?person of interest? in the investigation is Ezzie Thomas, a 73-year-old black man who just happens to have done very well in turning out the black vote.

From the GOP perspective, it doesn?t really matter whether anyone is arrested in the Orlando investigation, or even if a crime was committed. The idea, in Orange County and elsewhere, is to send a chill through the democratic process, suppressing opposing votes by whatever means are available.

Phil

 

[Kbob]

Dems aren't desperate, republicans are thugs.

A chill in Florida

Phil

Those tactics will go over like a lead balloon if true, IMO. IF true, it'll fuel even more black voter turn-out since the Demo camp (rightfully so) is watching things like a hawk. What makes more sense is to have a Republican initiative to increase hispanic voter turn-out to counter the black Demo voting block.