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In reply to the discussion: Sic semper Naderus. (A response to the recent pro-Nader posts) [View all]G_j
(40,367 posts)41. The Great Florida Ex-Con Game
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-great-florida-ex-con-gamernhow-the-felon-voter-purge-was-itself-felonious/
The Great Florida Ex-Con Game
Friday, March 1, 2002
by Greg Palast for Harper's Magazine
In November the U.S. media, lost in patriotic reverie, dressed up the Florida recount as a victory for President Bush.
But however one reads the ballots, Bush's win would certainly have been jeopardized had not some Floridians been barred from casting ballots at all. Between May 1999 and Election Day 2000, two Florida secretaries of state - Sandra Mortham and Katherine Harris, both protegees of Governor Jeb Bush- ordered 57,700 "ex-felons," who are prohibited from voting by state law, to be removed from voter rolls. (In the thirty-five states where former felons can vote, roughly 90 percent vote Democratic.)
A portion of the list, which was compiled for Florida by DBT Online, can be seen for the first time here; DBT, a company now owned by ChoicePoint of Atlanta, was paid $4.3 million for its work, replacing a firm that charged $5,700 per year for the same service. If the hope was that DBT would enable Florida to exclude more voters, then the state appears to have spent its money wisely.
---snip--
Johnny Jackson Jr. (4), thirty-two, has never been to Texas, and his mother swears he never had the middle name "Fitzgerald." Neither is there evidence that John Fitzgerald Jackson, felon of Texas, has ever left the Lone Star State. But even if they were the same man, removing him from Florida?s voter rolls is an unconstitutional act. Texas is among the thirty five states where ex-felons are permitted to vote, and the "full faith and credit" clause of the U.S. Constitution forbids states to revoke any civil rights that a citizen has been granted by another state; in fact, the Florida Supreme Court had twice ordered the state not to do so, just nine months before the voter purge. Nevertheless, at least 2,873 voters were wrongly removed, a purge authorized by a September 18, 2000 letter to counties from Governor Bush's clemency office. On February 23, 2001, days after the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights began investigating the matters, Bush's office issued a new letter allowing these persons to vote; no copies of the earlier letter could be found in the clemency office or on its computers.
Wallace McDonald (5), sixty-four, lost his right to vote in 2000, though his sole run-in with the law was a misdemeanor in 1959. (He fell asleep on a bus-stop bench.) Of the "matches' on these lists, the civil-rights commission estimated that at least 14 percent - or 8,000 voters, nearly 15 times Bush's official margin of victory - were false. DBT claims it warned officials "a significant number of people who were not a felon would be included on the list"; but the state, the company now says, "wanted there to be more names than were actually verified." Last May, Florida's legislature barred Harris from using outside firms to build the purge list and ordered her to seek guidance from county elections officials. In defiance, Harris has rebuffed the counties and hired another firm, just in time for Jeb Bush's reelection fight this fall.
The Great Florida Ex-Con Game
Friday, March 1, 2002
by Greg Palast for Harper's Magazine
In November the U.S. media, lost in patriotic reverie, dressed up the Florida recount as a victory for President Bush.
But however one reads the ballots, Bush's win would certainly have been jeopardized had not some Floridians been barred from casting ballots at all. Between May 1999 and Election Day 2000, two Florida secretaries of state - Sandra Mortham and Katherine Harris, both protegees of Governor Jeb Bush- ordered 57,700 "ex-felons," who are prohibited from voting by state law, to be removed from voter rolls. (In the thirty-five states where former felons can vote, roughly 90 percent vote Democratic.)
A portion of the list, which was compiled for Florida by DBT Online, can be seen for the first time here; DBT, a company now owned by ChoicePoint of Atlanta, was paid $4.3 million for its work, replacing a firm that charged $5,700 per year for the same service. If the hope was that DBT would enable Florida to exclude more voters, then the state appears to have spent its money wisely.
---snip--
Johnny Jackson Jr. (4), thirty-two, has never been to Texas, and his mother swears he never had the middle name "Fitzgerald." Neither is there evidence that John Fitzgerald Jackson, felon of Texas, has ever left the Lone Star State. But even if they were the same man, removing him from Florida?s voter rolls is an unconstitutional act. Texas is among the thirty five states where ex-felons are permitted to vote, and the "full faith and credit" clause of the U.S. Constitution forbids states to revoke any civil rights that a citizen has been granted by another state; in fact, the Florida Supreme Court had twice ordered the state not to do so, just nine months before the voter purge. Nevertheless, at least 2,873 voters were wrongly removed, a purge authorized by a September 18, 2000 letter to counties from Governor Bush's clemency office. On February 23, 2001, days after the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights began investigating the matters, Bush's office issued a new letter allowing these persons to vote; no copies of the earlier letter could be found in the clemency office or on its computers.
Wallace McDonald (5), sixty-four, lost his right to vote in 2000, though his sole run-in with the law was a misdemeanor in 1959. (He fell asleep on a bus-stop bench.) Of the "matches' on these lists, the civil-rights commission estimated that at least 14 percent - or 8,000 voters, nearly 15 times Bush's official margin of victory - were false. DBT claims it warned officials "a significant number of people who were not a felon would be included on the list"; but the state, the company now says, "wanted there to be more names than were actually verified." Last May, Florida's legislature barred Harris from using outside firms to build the purge list and ordered her to seek guidance from county elections officials. In defiance, Harris has rebuffed the counties and hired another firm, just in time for Jeb Bush's reelection fight this fall.
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I can't tell if all of DU is infested with shit-stirrers, really bored or really drunk...
Blue_Tires
Dec 2013
#1
Americans under 30 have a more favorable opinion of socialism than of capitalism.
Laelth
Dec 2013
#93
yet throughout this thread, you fail to address the culpability of 200,000+ registered dems..
frylock
Dec 2013
#92
The Democrats are and have been trying to address most of the issues that caused the 2000 theft
Gothmog
Dec 2013
#126
And let's not forget Iraq. Iraq would never have happened under Al Gore, but some fell for the...
Tarheel_Dem
Dec 2013
#32
If the Democrats want the votes of the left it should trying to appeal to the left.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Dec 2013
#13
And, the Democrats who voted for Dubya far outnumbered the Nader voters.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Dec 2013
#54
He's also responsible for letting the Democratic party know it has a left wing to contend with.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Dec 2013
#67
You may be right...the party is still ignoring the left and running right.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Dec 2013
#110
No, but his disciples pop up like dung heap mushrooms after a rain every cycle.
riqster
Dec 2013
#33
There was no betrayal, Nader is not a Democrat. The ubiquitous selective memory
Egalitarian Thug
Dec 2013
#66
No, the Democratic Party fucked our shit up, by first failing to earn enough votes and then,
Egalitarian Thug
Dec 2013
#127
HIs statement here is my answer to dilettantes who blithely call for destroying everything:
freshwest
Dec 2013
#40
You're welcome to steal any or all of it. The ideas and results matter, not sources or labels, IMO.
freshwest
Dec 2013
#72
I've been asked to, but have no interest in learning another format and need to do other things.
freshwest
Dec 2013
#84
Nope, all Nader did was pretend to be a liberal while he helped Bush steal elections.
riqster
Dec 2013
#122