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.

[Howlin]

Hell, a bunch of the people on this web site hate Ashcroft AND the DOJ and won't believe a word of this either.

[Bogie]

Well, of course not!

[Howlin]

Now, Class, what have we learned, other than that Mary Frances Berry is a damn liar.

[inflorida]

I agree with you...my first voting experience in Florida was during this past Presidential election (2000) and I also witnessed similar anti-Bush displays, although not as extreme as what you witnessed. I will be sure to remember all that I see during this next election and report any "discrimination", although I doubt the press is interested in the Republican's complaints.

[terilyn]

Good! I wish they'd rupture a few more and self implode. Now that would be some "Must See TV"!!!

[Freedom2specul8]

Hmmm..I too want to know about the servicemen.

[Amelia]

No one denied voting rights in Florida? What about the military?!!

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

[Luis Gonzalez]

That's because this place is crawling with Liberals and sore (principled) losers lately.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

[mhking]

I love it! Justice is a dish best served cold...

[rohry]

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.

Is it just me, or am I wrong to think that people should know our language before they can vote? How can you read the Constituition, listen to candidates debate, etc, if you don't know the language?

[kayak]

Would anyone care to speculate on which party was in charge of the elections in those counties and thus made any supposed mistakes that led to so-called voting irregularities and therefore would be responsible for any alleged problems?

Hint: the same party that approved the oh-so-difficult butterfly ballot.

[terilyn]

That dems are liars? Remember how they exaggerated the accusations. Also, I noticed something interesting about this article. Boyd is handling it, NOT Ashcroft. Now I'm really, really curious as to what's being investigated in MO. Wouldn't be prudent now would it for Ashcroft to investigate the fraud that cost him his Senate seat.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Thanks for the ping! Can someone explain to me why American citizens need to have the ballots written in another language or explained in another language?

See http://www.fadetoblack.com/floriduh/.

"On Tuesday November 7th, 2000 millions of giddy and excited Americans patriotically shuffled to the voting booths to cast their votes for the next President of the United States. Overnight, it became clear we had a close race on our hands between the Presidential hopefuls Al Gore and George W. Bush. So close in fact, that it all comes down to the state of Florida -- the winner of this state becomes our next President.

Late in the day of November 8th, George W. Bush pulled away with a significant lead and will most likely go on to win. But wait! It was around this time a number of Al Gore supporters in Palm Beach, Florida stepped dutifully forward to say they were "confused" by the ballots and began demanding they be allowed to recast their votes.

Always pursuing both sides of the story, we got ourselves a copy of the Official Ballot of Florida, the one you see below:

Although it appears rather obvious, even with this low quality reproduction, one only needs to follow the arrow next to the candidate of your choice and punch a hole to cast your vote. Apparently, many Floridians were terribly baffled by these simple instructions. Shortly after the news broke, many Democrats, including Jesse Jackson (who seems always available for comment) came down to raise "awareness" of this grave injustice.

By Thursday, November 9th, lawsuits against the ballot started filing into the courts asking for an official "do over".

At the time of this article, we sit and wait for the recount and for the courts to hear the case of the "baffling ballot".

In the meantime, we decided to take matters in our own hands. We are simply not sure if we're missing something here, so we decided to conduct our own test. We asked a small group of children, too young to officially take part in the Nation's election, to cast their votes using the same Official Ballot the people in Palm Beach used, and sought to find out how they handled themselves.

The Test

The test was rather straightforward. We showed each child the ballot and explained to them the instructions and asked them to find the right candidate and mark appropriate circle. To make the test a bit more strenuous and to simulate as close as possible the actual voting experience, we told each child as they were presented with the ballot to cast their vote for Al Gore. This seemed to be the hurdle that many of the people from Florida had difficulty with."

[snip]

The result of the test was that all of the children were able to cast votes with no problems, except for a three year old who did not yet know how to read.

[Carry_Okie]

What about the way Clinton screwed the military?

[EllaMinnow]

They're not interested, but it will be important to have a record if we end up with 2000Redux come November.

[EllaMinnow]

They're not interested, but it will be important to have a record if we end up with 2000Redux come November.

[Ben Bolt]

;) ! And if I recall everyone involved approved of the plan . The thug party keeps marching on and on .. I look forward to another good FReeper fight this November .

[deport]

. Boyd is handling it, NOT Ashcroft.

Wouldn't that be expected since Boyd is the head of the Civil Rights Division? He should be the litigating attorney I'd think.

[RonF]

There are circumstances under which a person can become an American citizen without having to learn English, according to this source.

Literacy and Educational Requirements

Unless physically unable to do so, an applicant for naturalization must be able to speak and understand simple English as well as read and write it. However, if on the date of the examination the applicant is more than 50 years of age and has been a lawful permanent resident for 20 years or more, or the applicant is more than 55 years of age and has been a lawful permanent resident for 15 years or more, the applicant will be exempt from the English language requirement of the law. If exempt, the applicant may take the examination in any language.

All applicants physically able to write, must also be able to sign their names in the English language. However, the person mentioned above who is excused from knowing English is permitted to sign in a foreign language if unable to sign in English.