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" New Florida Vote Scandal Feared"

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Posted by: 97silverlsc

New Florida Vote Scandal Feared
By Greg Palast
BBC

Wednesday 27 October 2004

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.

An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day."

Ion Sancho, a Democrat, noted that Florida law allows political party operatives inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot.

Mass challenges

They may then only vote "provisionally" after signing an affidavit attesting to their legal voting status.

Mass challenges have never occurred in Florida. Indeed, says Mr Sancho, not one challenge has been made to a voter "in the 16 years I've been supervisor of elections."

"Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on election day; and discourage voters from voting."

Sancho calls it "intimidation." And it may be illegal.

In Washington, well-known civil rights attorney, Ralph Neas, noted that US federal law prohibits targeting challenges to voters, even if there is a basis for the challenge, if race is a factor in targeting the voters.

The list of Jacksonville voters covers an area with a majority of black residents.

When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list, Republican spokespersons claim the list merely records returned mail from either fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign literature.

Republican state campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher stated the list was not put together "in order to create" a challenge list, but refused to say it would not be used in that manner.

Rather, she did acknowledge that the party's poll workers will be instructed to challenge voters, "Where it's stated in the law."

There was no explanation as to why such clerical matters would be sent to top officials of the Bush campaign in Florida and Washington.

Private detective

In Jacksonville, to determine if Republicans were using the lists or other means of intimidating voters, we filmed a private detective filming every "early voter" - the majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle with blacked-out windows.

The private detective claimed not to know who was paying for his all-day services.

On the scene, Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown said the surveillance operation was part of a campaign of intimidation tactics used by the Republican Party to intimidate and scare off African American voters, almost all of whom are registered Democrats.

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Posted by: pepperman

Personally i have a hard time believing anything from the BBC, it would be pure stupidity to use that list in this election or any election. I don't like Kerry, but to try and prevent anyone from voting who is registered to vote
would be a violation of a right that we all enjoy.

Posted by: 97silverlsc

THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
Republicans' Lost E-Mails Are Satirical Website's Gain

By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON ? For months, campaign staffers for President Bush and other Republican operatives have been sending internal memos and other documents, some of them sensitive, to the wrong e-mail address.

That is how the world learned this week of a so-called "caging" list consisting largely of African American voters in Florida, who critics say were likely targets of GOP voter challenges.

The e-mails were sent to georgewbush.org instead of georgewbush.com. The satirical georgewbush.org pokes fun at the president ? and is displaying many of those e-mails.

Posted on the website now is material related to the campaign's battleground state strategy, fretting over Democratic candidate John F. Kerry's gains on the stem cell issue, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's scripts for automated calls to Spanish-speaking voters encouraging early voting ? even discussion by one of presidential daughter Barbara Bush's admirers, who was advised by one correspondent to "stay away from [twin sister] Jenna or things could get ugly."

The website's owner, John Wooden, said he only discovered in the last two weeks that the site had been collecting the errant e-mails. The e-mails can be found by clicking on the link for the "Dead Letter Office."

One GOP official in Washington state openly worried about whether a county party organization had violated federal campaign laws by running an ad for Bush in its newsletter.

"God help us if the Democrats find out," wrote Ardean A. Anvik, a state committee man from Mason County.

On Kerry's apparent success in scoring points over embryonic stem cell research, one Republican wrote to campaign advisor Mary Matalin in early October: "Can't we say something intelligent? Can't Bush announce something progressive like dedicating even more federal funds to stem cells and other, more advanced areas such as cord blood? ? When healthcare is discussed next debate, things like stem cells and healthcare insurance and expensive drugs could bury him."

It was another set of misdirected e-mails that tipped off the British Broadcasting Corp. to a list GOP researchers prepared of more than 1,800 presumably Democratic voters in Jacksonville, Fla.

The publishers of georgewbush.org sent that e-mail ? complete with voter names ? to a BBC reporter about 10 days ago, said Wooden, the Brooklyn-based Web designer who created the site and posted the e-mails.

"I was as surprised as anyone," said Wooden, who bought the domain name a year ago for $1,000 and has since built a site that closely resembles the campaign's official site.

"When I realized what was there, I was excited," he said. "I thought there would be some juicy Watergate-type thing. The caging thing was the only one that was remotely interesting."

There are, however, a few more eyebrow-raising items.

One activist suggests producing an ad focused on Lynne Cheney's remark that Kerry was a "bad man" for invoking her daughter's sexual orientation.

A memo intended for Bush senior strategist Karl Rove before the party's national convention offers a list of invitees ? including conservative journalists, members of Congress and Cabinet officials ? to a "confidential" party sponsored by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

An e-mail written this month labeled "For Internal Use Only" laid out plans for three Ohio events targeting African American pastors who backed Bush.

Informed of the satirical site's e-mail postings, Bush campaign spokesman Reed Dickens was unfazed.

"We're grateful that over 7 million people have found the right address at georgewbush.com," he said. "We hope more people will find the real georgewbush.com."

That won't be possible for millions around the world, though. This week, the Bush campaign changed the settings on its official site to make it inaccessible to international users. Dickens said he was not permitted to provide an explanation.

The change was good news for Wooden.

"Everyone can still see georgewbush.org," said Wooden, "which I think is a far more accurate representation of the motives and priorities of the Bush campaign."

Posted by: mespock

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepperman

.... try and prevent anyone from voting who is registered to vote
would be a violation of a right that we all enjoy.

Doesn't matter who you vote for it's your American right to choose. No matter who you are voting for to prevent a vote is wrong.