-Caveat Lector- Federal Hearings Begin Into Irregularities in Florida Voting <http://news.findlaw.com/ap/l/0000/1-11-2001/20010111155718810.html> By DARA KAM Associated Press Writer TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ A Tallahassee minister Thursday told a federal commission investigating voting irregularities in Florida that he was wrongly accused of being a felon and almost lost his vote because of it. "I was slingshotted into slavery," said Willie D. Whiting, a 52-year-old pastor at the House of Prayer Church in Tallahassee. Officials at his polling place told him his named had been purged from the rolls because he was a felon _ which he wasn't. "It didn't feel good," said Whiting, who was finally allowed to vote after his background was double-checked with the county elections supervisor's office. Roberta Tucker, a 49-year-old state employee, said she was intimidated on Election Day when she was stopped by five white Highway Patrol officers about two miles from her polling place in Woodville, near Tallahassee, and asked for her drivers license. "It was an election day and a big election and there were only white officers there," she said. "It was suspicious to me." Patrol officials said later that it was a short-term, spur-of-the-moment road-safety checkpoint, unauthorized by higher officers but not intended to scare anyone away from the polls. The chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said the morning testimony gave cause for concern. "The committee has received troubling reports of an inordinate number of irregularities," Mary Frances Berry said. "We know that in elections across the country there will be from time to time instances of irregularities. But these should be the exceptions, not the rule." Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the president-elect, was to testify later Thursday. The governor formed a panel last month to recommend improvements, and both houses of the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature also are examining the disputed balloting. Meanwhile, civil rights groups are suing Florida election officials on behalf of thousands of blacks, saying they were denied the right to vote in the presidential election because of institutionalized racism. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami asked a federal judge to overhaul how Florida's elections are run by getting rid of punch-card ballots used in 25 counties, fixing the system for purging voter lists and monitoring state elections for 10 years. The civil rights lawsuit does not attempt to overturn the results of the Nov. 7 presidential race in Florida, which provided the decisive margin for President-elect Bush. Secretary of State Katherine Harris, state elections chief Clay Roberts and county election supervisors are named in the suit. Roberts said he couldn't comment because he hadn't seen it. Groups supporting the lawsuit said lawful voters were purged from registration lists and some voters were not given required language assistance. The groups also claim thousands were turned away from Florida polls, some because applications from state motor vehicle offices weren't processed. About 17,000 letters were sent out informing people they couldn't vote because they were convicted felons, even though many were not. "This thing is so massive," said Adora Obi Nweze, Florida president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "It's scary to think about what the numbers could be." The plaintiffs include voters and others who say they were turned away from the polls. Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed in state court in an attempt to block use of the punch-card "Votomatic" system. Plaintiffs claim the error-prone system caused thousands of votes to go uncounted and may have changed the results in a race that was decided in Bush's favor by 537 votes. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union sued Georgia officials to throw out the punch-card system used in 17 counties. The ACLU claims the system disenfranchises thousands in areas with large numbers of black voters. ---- On the Net: NAACP: http://www.naacp.org American Civil Liberties Union of Florida: http://www.aclufl.org People for the American Way: http://www.pfaw.org Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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