-Caveat Lector-
Account of Civil Rights Commission Hearing in Florida
<http://www.buzzflashcom.bigstep.com/>
Dear BuzzFlash:
I sat in on the Miami hearing held this Friday by the US Commission on
Civil Rights, and boy, was it an education watching the vice president of
DataBase Technologies/ChoicePoint squirm about producing the "Florida
Felons" list. The Miami Herald story about the hearing, which you linked on
your page, provides only a cursory explanation of what went on. Guess I'll
have to wait for G. Palast of The Guardian to dissect the testimony because
there are too many stinky fish in this one to go unremarked.
Under oath, VP George Bruder asserted that DataBase Technologies was not
required, as per its contract with the Florida Division of Elections, to
check if the people named as felons on its list were actually, felons. "The
supervisors [FL elections supervisors] would verify the lists," he said.
Yet, according to Palast, who obtained a copy of the contract,
"verification is supposed to be done by DBT" (Palast's words, in BBC
report). The Commission grilled him on this point; however, they did not
have a copy of the contract and requested that DBT submit one, after the
hearing. That seems rather backward timing to me. Couldn't they subpoena
one prior to the hearing?
I've been searching the web all day for articles on the USCCR hearing, and
have yet to find a single reference to what I considered one of the most
remarkable incidents during Bruder's grilling. The Commissioners did a good
job getting Bruder to specify the parameters of the methodology used to
compile the list. Bruder initially said it was "too complicated to go into"
(gee, sorry to inconvenience you, Bruder).
Then, after repeated questioning, he asserted that race was not one of the
factors used to weed out supposed felons. At that point, a Commissioner
held up a copy of a letter written by Bruder to Florida Supervisors of
Elections. (I got a copy of the letter, so I'll quote from it.)
In the opening paragraph, it says: "In an effort to ensure the accuracy of
the Florida Centralized Voter File, DBT conducted a review of the
records. The process included matching the information on the voter rolls
to felony conviction records to purse the rolls of those whose right to
vote had been revoked. The information used for the matching process
included first, middle and last name, date of birth, race and gender...."
(emphasis mine).
"Did you write this?" she asked. "Yes," Bruder said. "In it you state that
race was used as a criterion." "That was a piece of misinformation on my
part." "You wrote to the State misinforming them that race was used as a
factor?" the Commissioner asked incredulously. "Yes." Bruder then went on
to say that he had never written to the State to correct this so-called
"piece of misinformation"; nor had he told anyone verbally. "Do you ever
plan to tell them?" she asked. "I guess that would be advisable," he
blushed. (or something to that effect)
Here it was, in black and white, from DBT itself, that the company selected
names from the list based on race, and DBT's VP was denying it. Good lord!
Why didn't this make any of the media stories?
The evidence is damaging, no matter how you look at it. (1) If DBT did use
race as a factor, despite Bruder's assertions to the contrary, then Bruder
lied under oath; (2) If DBT did not use race as a factor, but indicated
that it DID in a letter to the State's Div. of Elections, then even so, the
State of Florida intentionally contracted with a company to purge voters'
names on this basis. It would therefore have been misled by a contractor to
whom it paid $4.3 million for a job that did not match the parameters set
up by the contract.
Today is Saturday. Hopefully some journalists are filing more in-depth
stories today about the Commission's hearings. The American public deserves
to hear more.
----
Filed by BuzzFlash Reader B.D.
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
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