Feds: No Floridians Denied Right to Vote in 2000 Election

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."

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.

Only U.S. Citizens have the right to vote for the President. People of foreign origins who ask to become citizens must have lived for a certain number of years in the USA and pass a test that will demonstrate they know enough English to become citizens. Therefore, everyone who is a citizen and want to vote should not need so much help to understand intructions in English to be able to vote. Do people actually need so much assistance to be able to vote? The voting process is not that complicated!

They should have really gone after Gores groupies for attempting to eliminate the military.

This would play very well in todays terror war.

Hey, the Democraps aren't complaining about Floridians who were prevented from voting, they are complaining about the Jamaicans and Haitians who were stopped, many of whom had already been paid to vote several times. These people were prevented from voting for Gore and the Florida Supreme Court knew it. This court tried to compensate for the refusal and that is why they made up stuff so as to rule in Gore's favor. At least, that is how I see it.

Whether there were actual rights violations or not, even the most ardent supporters of Bush have to see that this so called "investigation" was just a whitewash.

Go away, lib. Far far away. Go away mad. Go away happy. I don't care. Just go away. (cateye: Member since 30 May 2002)

NO it wasn't. All three were close counties, with substantial overvotes, and posessing Dem. Supervisor of elections.

Would you care to wager that part of any settlement, will include DOJ monitoring, and that they are not nbearly as close in 04?

From reports I heard after the election, I got the impression that Haitian immigrants tend to vote for Republicans and one was beaten up for carrying a pro-Bush sign on election day in Dade County.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.