DOJ Says No Credible Evidence That Any Florida Residents Intentionally Denied Voting Rights in 2000

ap ^ | 5/28/02

[knak]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department said Tuesday it found no credible evidence that any Florida residents were intentionally denied their right to vote in the state that handed George W. Bush his margin of victory in the 2000 presidential election.

The Justice Department, in a letter to Congress, detailed findings so far in its investigation of possible voting irregularities in three Florida counties: Orange, Miami-Dade and Osceola. The department has authorized lawsuits in those counties.

In the letter, the department acknowledged polling problems in the three counties may have led to small numbers of voters choosing to leave the polls without casting ballots.

"While the Civil Rights Division discovered evidence of significant confusion and delay in the three counties, there were relatively few voters who actually did not vote because of these problems," wrote Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd.

He said the small number "doesn't reasonably cast any doubt on President Bush's several hundred vote margin of victory in Florida."

"The Civil Rights Division found no credible evidence in our investigations that Floridians were intentionally denied their right to vote during the November 2000 election," Boyd said.

Poll watchers representing the Democratic Party allege that many voters were turned away.

Boyd said that one of the three counties - he did not say which one - may have employed too few bilingual workers, causing delays in providing assistance.

"This may have resulted in at least 26 voters choosing to leave the polls," the chief enforcer of the nation's civil rights laws wrote Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Boyd said that his investigators confirmed that a clerk denied poll watchers permission to help four voters who asked for bilingual assistance. The denial constitutes a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

In another of the other three counties - again, the county was not specified - the investigation found two cases of Haitian-American voters being denied language assistance, Boyd said.

However, the investigation was unable to confirm any of about 15 other alleged instances of voters being denied bilingual assistance.

In the third county, political party poll watchers alleged that approximately 140 voters had difficulty casting ballots, "but it appears that in every instance the voter was referred to the Supervisor of Elections office" for assistance, Boyd wrote. "The Civil Rights Division has no evidence that any of these individuals was unable to cast a ballot."

Also in the third county, the Civil Rights Division's investigation "indicated that a lack of bilingual poll workers resulted in considerable confusion at the polls, and that some poll workers were hostile to Hispanic voters."

Boyd has told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he expected the three counties to negotiate settlements by the time he's ready to file lawsuits.

Boyd said in an earlier letter that Orange County failed to have enough Spanish-speaking poll workers and didn't provide election information in both Spanish and English.

The government alleges that Miami-Dade officials didn't do enough to help Haitian-American voters understand the ballot, according to a copy of a proposed agreement between the county and the Justice Department.

Osceola County, south of Orlando, is accused of not providing Spanish-speaking voters with election information in their own language. A letter from the Justice Department to Osceola officials also said there were not enough bilingual poll workers.

[swheats]

This not only proves she's a lier but she has a pattern and practice of intimidation and bullying fellow boardmembers. It's time that she is voted out of her position, if not removed outright. Hopefully Mary Francis Berry's past indiscretions will come back to render her arguments useless.

We have been repeatedly lied to, and are sick of it. In 1999, then spokesperson for this same Board group, Chairperson Mary Francis Berry also made public denials that discussions of the sale of stations were occurring. Shortly afterward a dissident Board member, Peter Bramson, held a press conference to reveal that Berry had lied. [4] And all of this followed earlier revelations by watchdog group Media Alliance in San Francisco that they had obtained a misdirected memo from now Board Treasurer Michael Palmer, advocating the sale of either KPFA or WBAI. [5]

[Torie]

Gore was in error to have picked Dade (although he knew per his advisors that in the end that county at best would have havested an absolute minimum of net votes; it turned out alas that the number would have been negative, because to the surprise of all there was a slight statistical bias in favor of Bush with punch ballot undervotes). He should have picked Jacksonville instead and pushed the overvote issue. With the perfect legal strategy and with perfect knowledge, it is barely possible he might have been president. Rather sad isn't it?

[mcenedo]

Has MSNBC done a follow-up, now that the facts are that the DEMS are liars AND cheats?

[Quila]

Good point! My brother who was overseas in the military didn't even get his ballot until the end of November.

Same thing happened to me, although it was the fault of the local mailroom sitting on it until it was too late to mail.

[Quila]

Not excusing the idiots who couldn't fill it out, but I spent several years working at a university doing forms design, and this is one of the worst I've seen. They forgot the KISS principle and wanted to get fancy.

[capitan_refugio]

"If you cannot read and comprehend English, then IMHO you shouldn't be an American citizen and you shouldn't be voting!"

I agree with you, in principle. It is true that "naturalized citizens" must pass an English proficency test - and in theory, be able to understand a ballot.

But believe it or not, there are many natural born citizens who do not have English as their first language, and who are not proficient in English enough to vote, get good jobs, excel at school, etc. Many, but not all of these people are Spanish speakers whose parents came to this country and have not been assimilated. This category can also include some East Asians (although it has been my experience that "first generation" Asian-Americans make a point of being English proficient!) and American Indians in isolated situations. I know this is a broad brush, but that has been my experience living in the Southwest.

In the Florida election, I recall there were problems with Haitian-born (French patois speakers) and Cuban-Americans (Spanish speakers). I think all citizens of this country should support an English-only Constitutional Amendment. There is nothing like language to divide a nation (just look at Quebec!).

(My comments above do not apply to my Cajun friends - "Come oon an pass a goud time!")

[My back yard]

The purpose of the media frenzy on this case was to further alienate black voters from the Republican Party. Now I see that the only problems were of an English/Spanish language barrier. Not, as has been suggested, that blacks were prohibited from voting in some areas. I'm wondering how many of these hispanic voters would have voted for Bush anyway? And the real pi**er is that the media ran the info about this case being looked at over and over and over again. But, you'll hardly see a word of this outcome. Ssooo TYPICAL of the media bias for the left.

[Caipirabob]

Just to say it, when my wife and I went to the polling place that November here in West Boca, it was a pleasent experience. The lines were long but orderly, people were generally very well behaved, the staff was polite and friendly and I saw no signs of Gore buttons or anything. They couldn't have been Democrats... perhaps I live in one of those PBC minority conservative barrios? *grin*

[Joe Brower]

As long as the Marxists think the uneducated, self-important unwashes masses that comprise their constiuency will listen and believe their bullsh!t, they will continue to cry "foul!". Look how far whining has gotten them already.

After all, it's that evil, right-wing extremist running the DOJ now, John Ashcroft, who's rigged this "investigation" just like those damned Republicans rigged the election. It's as plain on the nose on your welfare-receivin' face! $;-)

Note also how the DemocRATs attempts to throw out military ballots and their collusion with their leftmedia cohorts to demoralize voters in the panhandle with their premature claims on election night that "Florida has gone for Gore" (Gag!!) were convienently NOT part of this last-ditch attempt to illegally seize power.

They are, to the last man jack, a completely dishonorable and despicable lot.

[The Wizard]

If you can't read and write english, you don't deserve to vote, as you haven't reached the minimum requirements, IMHO

[eureka!]

Re#48 Yep. The Rats came too close. *sigh*

Mr. King, thanks for the ping...

[Clemenza]

Bush still got about 47% of the vote in Miami-Dade, with 73% in my heavly Cuban-American precinct.

[Redleg Duke]

Yeah, but remember, as far as DemocRATs are concerned, members of the US Military shouldn't have any voting rights because of their tendency to abuse those rights by not voting mindlessly for the DemocRATs.

[Clemenza]

No problems with Cuban Americans. There was plenty of assistance at my polling place for the elderly people with language problems (most young Cuban Americans speak English).

Remember that the problems with Spanish-Speakers occurred in CENTRAL FLORIDA where there IS NOT a large Cuban population. Osceola and Orange have large Puerto Rican and a growing Mexican population.

[PJ-Comix]

On election day in 2000, the first thing I saw at the polling place was a station wagon, parked right next to the door, covered with obscene anti-Bush bumper stickers. When I took my daughter into the polling place, the volunteer helping her with "KidsVote" was wearing a big Gore button.

This stuff is definitely illegal. No politicking allowed near polling places. I forgot how near it is prohibited but your examples are definitely within the forbidden zone.

[Howlin]

Again.

[pfflier]

You are absolutely right. Vote tampering took many different perspectives. The media certainly exercised undue influence. Also the attempt to exclude absentee military votes was despicable. Perhaps the DOJ should invesitigate these attempts as well what the whiney Demoncrats squealed about.

[Kaslin]

A working knowledge of English is (supposedly) required for U.S. citizenship.

It used to be, at least it was when I made my citizenship in 1977.

[RonF]

Perhaps, but such is the law. In fact, it's a known phenomena wherein immigrants (of various nationalities) come over to America not knowing the language. Then their kids, being kids, pick it up quickly. At which point the usual circumstance of parents being the interpreters of the world for their children is stood on it's head, with harmful results to the family order and parental authority.

[Kaslin]

My Native language is German, by the time I made my citizenship in 1977, I was already able to speak, read and write in English