How the GOP Gamed the System in Florida

By John Lantigua

This article appeared in the April 30, 2001 edition of The Nation.

April 12, 2001

On July 10, 2000, in the midst of the presidential campaign, GOP candidate George W. Bush addressed the national NAACP convention in Baltimore and denounced such "new forms of racism" as racial profiling and redlining. But even as he spoke, a very old, traditional form of racism was being implemented in Florida: the disfranchisement of eligible voters, especially blacks, which helped Bush win that state and the election.

To read a press release on John Lantigua's special report, click here.

» More

Most Read

Issues »

Despite one well-reported incident involving a police checkpoint near a polling place, disfranchisement 2000-style did not depend on intimidation. Cattle prods and attack dogs, the legacy of former Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor, were nowhere in evidence. Instead, Florida state elections officials and hired data crunchers used computers to target thousands of voters, many of whom were then purged from the voter rolls without reason. And many thousands more saw their votes thrown out as a result of error-prone voting machines and poorly designed ballots, the results of an underfunded and chaotic electoral system.

In all, some 200,000 Floridians were either not permitted to vote in the November 7 election on questionable or possibly illegal grounds, or saw their ballots discarded and not counted. A large and disproportionate number were black.

Florida's black leaders, already engaged in an emotional, bitter confrontation with Governor Jeb Bush, George W. Bush's brother, had mounted an unprecedented voter registration effort to defeat candidates they saw as political enemies. According to exit polls, 65 percent more black voters went to the polls in Florida in 2000 than in the 1996 election, and of the votes that were counted, blacks went at least 9 to 1 for Democrat Al Gore. But the votes that were tallied were not enough. After the US Supreme Court cut off ballot recounts, Bush had a margin of 537 votes out of more than 5.8 million cast. The closeness of the final count made all votes not cast and not counted that much more crucial. (As one example, the Palm Beach Post recently reported that Gore lost 6,600 votes in Palm Beach County alone because of the infamous butterfly ballot, more than ten times Bush's margin of victory.)

State officials deny racist intent in their actions, but the US Commission on Civil Rights conducted two hearings in Florida in January and February to determine why so many Floridians were denied the right to vote. In a preliminary assessment, the commission noted that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 "was aimed at subtle, as well as obvious, state regulation and practices" that could deny citizens the right to vote because of their race. The commission said it found evidence of "prohibited discrimination" in Florida's polling process. A final report is due this summer.

The NAACP and others filed suit on January 10 against Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who was a co-chair of the campaign and is responsible for the conduct of fair elections in Florida, and other Florida officials, charging them with violating the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The suit demands many reforms of the Florida electoral system.

But no future remedy can undo what happened in 2000, only a portion of which has been revealed through the hearing, the suit and media reports. "They done got us," said civil rights veteran Elmore Bryant of Marianna, Florida, referring to the GOP-mandated purge of voter rolls. "They had themselves a game and we had no game. The old leaders in the '60s wouldn't have let this happen. We woulda had us a game too, but we didn't. They done got us good."

About John Lantigua

John Lantigua covered Central America for the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. While at the Miami Herald, he shared the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for pieces investigating voter fraud in the 1997 Miami mayoral election. His fifth novel, The Ultimate Havana (Signet), was published April 1 (2001). more...
Most Read

Issues »

Most Emailed

Issues »

Popular Topics

Blogs

» Campaign 08

McCain: "I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." | GOP nominee tells his backers to back off. They respond by booing.
John Nichols

» The Beat

Troopergate Conclusion: Palin Abused Her Office | "I find that Governor Palin abused her power," writes investigator in a report released Friday night by GOP dominated Alaska Legislative Council.
John Nichols

» The Dreyfuss Report

Thirty Years' War in Afghanistan | It might be unwinnable -- or it just might take several decades. A sober look at that other war.
Robert Dreyfuss

» Editor's Cut

The Woman Greenspan, Rubin & Summers Silenced | How Brooksley Born might have helped us avert this financial meltdown
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» The Notion

Is the Second Superpower of the Cold War Going Down? | The Soviets were bankrupted by an Afghan War that wouldn’t end. Now, is it our turn?
Tom Engelhardt

» Capitolism

Expert Failure | How the elites failed us.
Christopher Hayes

» Act Now!

S. Dakota Goes After Choice (Again) | Meet the Rev. Steve Hickey. He believes that S. Dakota has been chosen by God to upend Roe v. Wade.
Peter Rothberg

» And Another Thing

Are You the Very Model of a Modern Vice-President? | Sarah's not the only one with a special skill.
Katha Pollitt