[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: A Chill in Florida

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A Chill in Florida

August 23, 2004
 By BOB HERBERT 



 

The state police investigation into get-out-the-vote
activities by blacks in Orlando, Fla., 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 G.O.P. 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 Governor
Bush. Mr. Dyer was re-elected last March. As with Mr. 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 flawed list of supposed felons that contained
the names of thousands of African-Americans 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 flawed 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. 

Ms. Hood, handpicked by Governor Bush 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 Ms. Hood and Governor Bush to
keep the list secret. It was disclosed only as a result of
lawsuits filed under Florida's admirable 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 allegations 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 G.O.P. 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
Governor 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 African-American vote. 

>From the G.O.P. 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. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ex=1094287059&ei=1&en=797e478fa9dddc31


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