1.9 million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election

[seemslikeadream]

Greg Palast
Sunday, June 20, 2004



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In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.

This year, it could get worse.

These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round.

How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost.

While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers.

Florida's Gadsden County has the highest percentage of black voters in the state -- and the highest spoilage rate. One in 8 votes cast there in 2000 was never counted. Many voters wrote in "Al Gore." Optical reading machines rejected these because "Al" is a "stray mark."

more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/20/ING2976LG61.DTL

[PeaceProgProsp]

1. That's 2% of the vote in a year when the loser was the winner.

It was year when 1 Supreme Ct vote or a couple hundred votes in Florida were the margin of victory, depending on your persepctive.

That's unacceptable.

[lovedems]

2. That is why I want to know

where civil liberties groups are in Florida because they are doing it all over again. They are so brazen, "It worked in 2000, let's do it again!"

The NAACP and other rights groups should be in Florida trying to prevent this from happening again.

I don't live in Florida so maybe there alot of groups there trying to stop this fiasco from happening again and I just haven't heard since I am in Illinois.:shrug:

[nodehopper]

9. There was a story about monitors...

I remember reading something about international monitoring groups planning on coming to FL? Some group with a Latin/Catholic name comprised out of members from many countries? Bush/KKKarl was pissed off about it? Anyone remember this story?
I wonder if anything will come of it.

[struggle4progress]

12. Probably Pax Christi

Try links off this page:

http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_events_more.asp?id=887

[nodehopper]

14. Yes, that was it, thanks!

So I wonder if they are still coming and if they do whether anything productive can come out of it.

[laylah]

27. I believe

that I have heard that there will (should?) be "mere citizens" at voting sites with their video cams...as it SHOULD be!

Jenn

[MisterP]

15. I remember the NAACP brought a lawsuit against TN & FL

that they disenfranchised black voters (I think the suit mentioned intent) and it was so damning the states settled it out of the courts

[expatriot]

3. Wouldn't half of 1.9 million be .95 million?

Wouldn't half of 1.9 million be .95 million? I am not trying to dismiss the outrage of even one vote left uncounted, but if there were 1.9 million votes not counted and half of those were black votes, then .95 million black votes were uncounted.

[enki23]

8. dear god

you think, maybe he... *might* have been rounding a bit?

while you're at it, you'd best check and see if it might have been 1,870,235 rather than 1,900,000 votes that weren't counted. he might well be lying about that too.

just think about those 29,765 votes he might be claiming weren't counted, BUT WERE! lying bastard.

[hightime]

11. Run out of nits to pick?

The article is written by a journalist not an accountant.

[Laughing Mirror]

20. That and the fact that journalists do not write newspaper headlines

Copyeditors do, and this one seems to his misread the lead.

[IronLionZion]

25. yes, the headline is incorrect

it's still outrageous and I am outraged by the lack of outrage!

[goclark]

4. What Can We Do?

If they can mess with that many votes we need not have an election.
The media is slanted so much that when we hear the vote is "too close to call" we think that's true. It is probably NOT too close to call at this very minute. Kerry is probably ahead -way ahead.

[peacebuzzard]

21. Nothing! Except sit on asses and watch the count on TV.

It is so sad to be surrounded by so much apathy. In certain countries they take it to the streets. But not here, no siree. We are too tired from working two jobs, maybe three to make payments on our mortgaged lives. Lack of outrage is so sad. Sucks, sucks, sucks.;( :hangover: :thumbsdown: If the same scenario just barely has a chance of repeating itself this year I swear I will go stark raving mad to uncontrollable rage.

[missile_bender]

28. All Democrats should volunteer to help at the polls

in November. Contact your local party HQ and volunteer. They need people to drive folks to the polls, to make calls to help get out the vote, lots of stuff. If you volunteer at a poll you might be able to help reduce the amount of spoiled ballots by helping voters.

[frylock]

5. thanks nader

</extremefuckinsarcasm>

[struggle4progress]

13. If true, the article shows that Nader wasn't the problem at all.

[MisterP]

16. NOOOOOOO!!

what will the DLCers and people who chant "ABB!" continuosly do without a scapegoat or whipping-boy?!

[struggle4progress]

19. Well, I would suggest they use their energy to attack King George.

[uptown ruler]

6. this is crazy...

these ppl are scary


Spread the Word
CausePimpingThePeopleAin’tEasy

[Lefty48197]

7. It's even worse than that:

Let's not forget about the American citizens of all races who were denied representation due to the Republican's refusal to count the people who were missed by the standard census taking methods.
Uncounted voters in America's big cities, led to the rural (Republican) areas gaining seats in Congress that they did not deserve. Those seats in Congress were stolen directly from the people who were not counted in the census.
Democrats fought to ensure that as many citizens as possible would be counted in the most recent census, while the Republicans fought equally hard to ensure that as many big city residents as possible would be left uncounted. The Republicans won, and hundreds of thousands of, mostly Black Americans have been denied Congressional representation. Toss in the lack of representation for the majority Black population in Washington D.C., and America starts to look like a nation, by, for, and of WHITE people.

[nodehopper]

10. America starts to look like a nation, by, for, and of WHITE people.

you mean it isn't???? </sarcasm off>

[goclark]

18. It absolutely is a nation for RICH white people

People that are single minded, my way or the high way people.

Some will say that Colon and Condi and Clarence are not WHITE and I say they are. They are serving their Masters and they don't realize it. They are being used big time.

I am so tired of seeing a government that does not look like America.
Democrats(white and black and other hues) don't count. Democrats are the "Invisible Man" that Ralph Ellison wrote about so many years ago.

"They"(Bushco, Enron executive and other thugs) DO NOT SEE US!!!

What a shame that a nation of so called liberty is not free for ALL of its citizens.


We must not let them keep control of this country!!!

[GermanDJ]

17. Is the headline correct?

Sorry 'bout being a nitpick: But shouldn't the headline read
"1 million black votes didn't count ..."?

:pals:

[wjsander]

22. Bottom Line...

What happened in Florida was an outrage, but still, Al Gore should have just freaking done better. How could an incumbant VP from 8 great economic years have ANY competition, let alone lose the election?!

Either that, or we should re-do the voting system so that every person's vote, no matter what state they are in, counts just as much as the next person's. Think of all those dems in Texas this year, their votes aren't going to count. If the rules change so that the popular vote decides the presidency instead of the EC, officials in places like Florida might be less persuaded to cheat since it won't mean as much as when they knew a few hundred votes could swing the election. Take away the power, take away the corruption.

[IronLionZion]

24. no then they'll cheat more

the electoral college limits cheating. If we had a popular vote then, cheating ANYWHERE could throw the entire election. With the electoral vote, cheating in one state affects only that state's votes. It sucks when that state is Florida since it decided the election, but cheating would be more rampant without the electoral college.

[hang a left]

30. We will never know for sure.

All the spotlights have been on Florida. You mean to tell me that there was no hanky panky in other cities, counties, states?

[wurzel]

23. This is not a suprise. What is totally amazing is the

Democratic Party's lack of interest!.

[Swamp Rat]

26. Holy Shit Batman!

I didn't know that there were this many disenfranchised voters... We cannot let this happen again, EVER! This is a nonpartisan issue... you got that Freeps?

Thank you Greg Palast. America OWES you bigtime!

[seemslikeadream]

29. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master R

The plans of Adolf Hitler and the German Nazis to create a Nordic "master race" are often looked upon as a horrific but fairly isolated effort. Less notice has historically been given to the American eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although their methods were less violent, the methodology and rationale which the American eugenicists employed, as catalogued in Edwin Black's Against the Weak, were chilling nonetheless and, in fact, influential in the mindset of Hitler himself. Funded and supported by several well-known wealthy donors, including the Rockefeller and Carnegie families and Alexander Graham Bell, the eugenicists believed that the physically impaired and "feeble-minded" should be subject to forced sterilization in order to create a stronger species and incur less social spending. These "defective" humans generally ended up being poorer folks who were sometimes categorized as such after shockingly arbitrary or capricious means ! such as failing a quiz related to pop culture by not knowing where the Pierce Arrow was manufactured. The list of groups and agencies conducting eugenics research was long, from the U.S. Army and the Departments of Labor and Agriculture to organizations with names like the "American Breeders Association." Black's detailed research into the history of the American eugenics movement is admirably extensive, but it is in the association between the beliefs of some members of the American aristocracy and Hitler that the book becomes most chilling. Black goes on to trace the evolution of eugenic thinking as it evolves into what is now called genetics. And while modern thinkers have thankfully discarded the pseudo-science of eugenics, such controversial modern issues as human cloning make one wonder how our own era will be remembered a hundred years hence. --John Moe
http://topics.practical.org/details/MGJML/FJKMJ

[farmbo]

31. JEB can't use Poll taxes & Literacy tests...So now he has "Spoilage"

...to keep those "Uppity" Blacks from voting.

Folks...we need a volunteer elections lawyer at EVERY polling place in Fla this year! With the local Judge's number on speed dial for quick TROs!!!!!!!!

We can trust Jeb Bush about as far as I can throw a Grand Piano left handed.

[struggle4progress]

32. kick for corrupt floridian officials

:kick: