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

ap ^ | 5/28/02

[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.