------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 22, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WILL THE 2000 FLORIDA "VOTE" REPEAT ITSELF IN 2004?
By Monica Moorehead
With the presidential elections scheduled less than four months away, Florida's election process has once again caused a national firestorm of protest over the sabotaging of voter registration rolls where convicted "felons" are concerned. This recent development was proving to be such an embarrassment for Gov. Jeb Bush--George W.'s brother--that the purging program was suddenly halted if not scrapped altogether.
At the heart of this controversy is the fact that out of Florida's list of an estimated 48,000 convicted "felons," 22,000 of them are African Americans. That amounts to 46 percent. Yet African Americans make up just 11 percent of the overall Floridian registered voters. Those who consider themselves "Hispanic" or Latin@ make up 8 percent of Florida's registered voters; they accounted for only 61 of the individuals listed as "felons."
The vast majority of Black voters, more than 90 percent, reportedly identify with the Democratic Party, while many [EMAIL PROTECTED] vote Republican. Many of the pro-Republican Cuban Americans in Florida view the Bush administration as more anti-communist than the Democrats. It is little wonder that the state Republican administration would want to get rid of many of the Democratic Party electorate through purging to help George W. Bush carry the vote in Florida.
During the 2000 presidential elections, Bush beat his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, by a mere 537 votes due to the disenfranchisement of thousands of African American voters and other oppressed sectors. This scandal included denying Black convicted "felons" the right to vote, many for the rest of their lives.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Bush's theft of the national election with a 5-4 vote. When members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a number of them representing Florida districts, tried to have a petition protesting the selection of Bush as president, not one Senator would back the petition.
This latest purging saw the light of day when it was discovered that more than 2,100 people on the "felons" list had won clemency, meaning that they were supposed to automatically have their voting rights reinstated. There was just one problem. These names were never removed from the "felons" list.
A MATTER OF RACISM
The big-business media likes to frame this controversy within the context of Democrats vs. Republicans, but it goes much deeper than political affiliations with the capitalist parties. What lies underneath this scandal is racism, pure and simple.
There are more than 2 million people presently incarcerated in local, state and federal prisons inside the U.S., the largest such population in the world. A hugely disproportionate number of these inmates are people of color, primarily Black, Latin@ and Native. There are more young Black men incarcerated than in U.S. universities. A large majority of those behind bars were convicted of drug related, non-violent felonies.
An estimated 4.7 million people in the U.S. are barred from voting due to felony convictions. That amounts to about 2 percent of the entire adult U.S. population. These startling figures do not factor in those who are undocumented but are still caught up into the vicious web of the U.S. criminal justice system.
Thirteen percent of Black men have had their voting rights taken away due to felony convictions, which is seven times the national average. Black people make up between 13 and 15 percent of the overall U.S. population.
According to a July 11 New York Times editorial, each state has its own rules and regulations on how ex-felons can restore their right to vote. These rules are not made easily available for those who are released from prison. And the rules are written in a way that is very hard to understand. Thirty five states prohibit some "felons" from voting once they are released. Four states, including New York, allow "felons" who are on probation to vote, but not those on parole.
John Parker, Workers World Party's 2004 presidential candidate, remarked, "What is happening to Black voters in Florida, whether convicted 'felons' or not, is a racist attack on their democratic right to decide who will represent them whether in the State House or the White House. And Florida is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other states, North and South, that are disenfranchising people of color in order to maintain the status quo.
"Our campaign is all about exposing the fact that there is no fundamental difference between the pro-war, pro-big business platforms of Bush and Kerry. At the same time, our campaign stands in complete solidarity with the struggles of oppressed peoples who to this day are still fighting for fundamental rights that whites on the whole have had for many decades."
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