[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Among Black Voters, a Fervor to Make Their Ballots Count

[swiggard at comcast.net]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by swiggard at comcast.net.


Trends like this, and the one among students, may just decide the election. Neither group is routinely sampled in the polls we see on the news.
Peace,
Bill

swiggard at comcast.net


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Among Black Voters, a Fervor to Make Their Ballots Count

October 11, 2004
 By JIM DWYER 



 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Her bus was coming, but Charlotte
Marshall had not yet finished talking about what mattered
to her in the election. Social Security and health
insurance, definitely. The Vietnam War, absolutely not. And
she had still more to say. 

The campaign for president has entered its final leg
crackling with rare energy on the streets, in workplaces
and in homes, perhaps with no greater vigor than among
black Americans like Mrs. Marshall, who works for Stein
Mart, a discount store. 

It was nearly time for Mrs. Marshall to board, so she spoke
quickly, definitively and passionately about the bleakness
of Iraq. Finally, she turned to the voting process. 

No matter whom she ends up choosing - maybe Senator John
Kerry, said Mrs. Marshall, or perhaps President Bush, to
untangle his Iraqi knot - she will work Election Day as a
poll watcher. "What happened in 2000 got me into it," she
said. 

Like Mrs. Marshall, many African-Americans are speaking
about the fundamental act of voting this year with
rekindled fervor, throwing a high-wattage backlight behind
the issues and personalities of the campaign. The
disqualified ballots, excluded voters and contentious
ending of the 2000 election - when black precincts in
Florida had votes rejected at three times the rate of white
precincts - have formed a galvanizing memory. "We feel
betrayed," said Rod Owens, 22, a student at Florida A&M
University in Tallahassee. "We're looking for revenge." 

Mr. Owens, active in a young Democrats group on his campus,
put the matter more bluntly than most, but the
determination to vote and make it count appears to cross
boundaries of age, class and geography. African-Americans,
for four decades the most reliable reservoir of Democratic
support in presidential elections, now are also part of a
torrent of new voter registrations in swing states like
Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and elsewhere. 

[Aware of how essential black voters' turnout is for his
campaign, Mr. Kerry attended services yesterday at two
black churches in Florida. With the Revs. Jesse L. Jackson
and Al Sharpton at his side, he told worshipers at his
second stop, a Baptist church in Miami, that he had a team
of lawyers, led by African-Americans, poised to respond to
any charges of disenfranchisement. "We have an unfinished
march in this nation," he said, invoking the civil rights
struggle.] 

Here in Jacksonville, as the Oct. 4 registration deadline
approached, new voters in black neighborhoods were signing
up at a pace two-thirds faster than in 2000. In
Philadelphia, election officials report the greatest surge
of registrations in 21 years, resulting in more than 70,000
new voters added to the rolls since April, with growth
heaviest in African-American sections. In Ohio, new
registrations in Democratic strongholds, many of them
African-American areas, have increased 250 percent over
2000. 

In interviews here in north Florida, in southwest
Philadelphia and elsewhere, at bus stops, on porches, in
sleek law offices, some two dozen African-American voters
spoke about the broad band of issues that define their
personal stakes in this campaign: the war in Iraq and what
it means to a son or grandson in the military; the economy
and how it shapes a bricklayer's week; the tax code and its
effect on an independent businessman's prospects; and the
seats of aging Supreme Court justices, watched warily by a
generation of business executives, many of whom began their
climb to prosperity in a society freshly opened by the
federal bench. 

"I have a son with the military, in a combat-ready unit,"
Mrs. Marshall said. "I'm scared to death every day. I'm
disappointed about the Bush program. I was all for it when
he said we were going to fight terror. But they know for a
fact where that 9/11 attack originated, and it wasn't Iraq.
If they had concentrated all that effort in Afghanistan,
maybe by now they would have him, that other fool" -
meaning Osama bin Laden. 

The voters interviewed - habitual Democrats, for the most
part - spoke about John Kerry with polite reserve, as if he
were a distant cousin, more rumor, so far, than actual
family relation. "I guess he's all right, but he's no Bill
Clinton, downright homey-like," said Eddie West, a
maintenance worker with the Salvation Army in Jacksonville.


Black voter participation has been increasing in recent
presidential elections, and 57 percent of eligible black
voters turned out in 2000, according to the Census Bureau.
In 2000, Mr. Bush received one vote from African-Americans
for every nine cast for Al Gore, the lowest share for any
Republican since 1964, according to exit polls. 

Both Mr. Bush and the chairman of the Republican National
Committee, Ed Gillespie, have pledged to do better, and
Republican officials are emphasizing home ownership and
business opportunities before black audiences. 

While both parties maintain they hope for a heavy vote from
African-Americans, Democrats say history shows that would
be to their benefit. 

"We will equal the 2000 turnout or do better," said Bill
Lynch, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Kerry. "The
community is not going to vote for George Bush in any real
numbers. But we've got to get them excited about John
Kerry." 

Over the last 15 years or so, a rising black middle class
has dispersed from cities into integrated suburbs, creating
a demand for political messages that reflect the diverse
circumstances of African-Americans. 

During a town hall meeting with Mr. Kerry in Jacksonville
last month, Robert and Anna Lee sat impassively in the
rear, offering mild applause, not rising to join ovations.
Even so, both Lees said they had no reluctance about
supporting Mr. Kerry, who is seen by some as stiff and
distant. 

"Would I want to go have coffee with him?" Mr. Lee said,
shrugging. "That kind of thing doesn't bother me. I'm just
not satisfied where I see us going on the international
scene." 

The Lees moved to Florida from Michigan after Mr. Lee
retired from the Internal Revenue Service. Mrs. Lee said
she was astounded by Florida's problems in the 2000
election. "It seemed to have affected our people more," she
said. 

When Mr. Kerry took questions, the Rev. James Sampson, a
Baptist minister, spoke of what many in his community
perceived to be a feeble effort in north Florida by Mr.
Gore's camp in the recount of 2000. About 27,000 votes were
disqualified in Duval County, many from black neighborhoods
in Jacksonville. 

"Will you fight till every vote in Florida is counted?" Mr.
Sampson asked. 

"I will fight," Mr. Kerry said, "until the last dog dies."
The crowd roared. 

At a private gathering on Sept. 20 in midtown Manhattan
with a small group of black executives and lawyers, Mr.
Kerry heard discussion of "race and poverty, minority
businesses, health care," said Gordon J. Davis, a partner
with the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae who
once served as parks commissioner in the Koch
administration. "The message was, these issues are very
important to us, but we want you to win. We can debate
those after you win.'' 

Mr. Davis continued: "The next two, three, four
appointments to the Supreme Court will be made by the next
president. The people in that room had the benefits of
growing up in the civil rights revolution." 

In southwest Philadelphia, Terrance Carter and Thomas
Robinson, replacing a brick wall in a backyard, took a
break to chat about the campaign. Both men said they had
turned to construction work after they lost jobs - Mr.
Carter with food service for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, and Mr. Robinson with a pharmaceutical packing
company. 

Mr. Carter scoffed at assertions that Mr. Bush's tax cuts
had spurred the economy. "Bush is a spoiled rich boy," he
declared. "It's all about a lack of jobs. I don't see no
growth; I don't see nothing to be stimulated." 

An Army veteran, Mr. Carter said he saw the invasion of
Iraq as tantamount to "strong-arming people" and said he
thought Mr. Kerry would be able to persuade the United
Nations to take on a bigger role in Iraq. 

"You don't hear about bin Laden at all any more," Mr.
Carter said. "Couple more weeks, near to the election,
you'll hear about threats." 

Mr. Robinson nodded, and said: "You hear code orange. Or
code red." 

"Make it up as you go along," Mr. Carter said. "As long as
Bush is in office, everybody's a threat." 

At his home on Hazel Avenue in Philadelphia, Larry Moore, a
purchasing consultant, said that he was concerned about
Iraq, the environment, the Supreme Court and the tax code
but that Mr. Kerry's plans seemed vague. "Now that we're in
Iraq, can Kerry do anything to get us where we need to be
faster?" Mr. Moore asked. 

On taxes, he said: "I think the code needs to be more
equitable. But people should not be penalized for working
hard or because they end up doing well." 

Across Hazel Avenue, June Fike, who is retired from the
Campbell Soup Company, spoke about the unsettled affairs in
Iraq. 

"If you look at the war news, it's just -- " She paused,
shaking her head, searching her mind for the words to match
her distress. "I get heart trouble from it. I got a
grandson, 22, he had a birthday last week. He is in the
National Guard. They said it was for home security, so he
signed up, but they changed it. Now they got him down in
Fort Hood, getting ready to ship him out." 

Leon Williams, a friend who was listening to Mrs. Fike,
confessed to a soft spot for the president. 

"I like Kerry, but Bush, he ain't no bad guy," Mr. Williams
said. "He just got us in a jam." 

"Jam?" said Mrs. Fike. "That's what you call it, a jam? We
got in something looks like we can't get out of." 

Kimberlyn Short, a voting canvasser from America Coming
Together, a group aligned with the Democrats, approached
Mrs. Fike and learned that both her 89-year-old mother and
94-year-old father would be voting this year. When Ms.
Short asked if she would need help getting them to the
polls, Mrs. Fike gave a firm no. "You look after some
others who don't have anyone," Mrs. Fike said. "I don't
care if it snows six feet high, we're getting out of here
to vote." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/politics/campaign/11voters.html?ex=1098494884&ei=1&en=c02d6ad5feaa12e8


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