The stage for the November 7 election and the effort by black leaders to defeat George W. Bush was set during Jeb Bush's initial and unsuccessful run for governor in 1994. During a debate in Tampa on July 27 of that year, Bush was asked by a journalist what he would do for Florida's black community if he was elected. His answer was both concise and prophetic. "Probably nothing," he said, explaining that he favored what he called "equality of opportunity" for all Floridians. Four years later, when he ran again, he avoided such candor. But although he won, he was backed by only 10 percent of the state's blacks, according to exit polls. In his first year in office, Bush then eliminated most affirmative action programs benefiting minorities and women, substituting a plan he called the One Florida Initiative. That program ended guaranteed minority and female set-asides in state hiring, in the awarding of state contracts (only 1 percent of state spending for merchandise and services went to minority-owned firms as it was, according to the Miami Herald) and in university admissions. Polls had shown that such a move would be popular with the white majority in the state. Black and feminist leaders called it a betrayal.

After the Governor refused to meet with them to discuss his policy, two black state legislators staged a twenty-hour sit-in at Bush's suite of offices. At one point Bush was overheard saying, "Kick their asses out of here," although an aide later claimed he was referring to journalists. Bush apologized to the public for his language but not his policy. The sit-in attracted statewide support from blacks, women's groups and other Floridians, forcing Bush to accept a series of public hearings. Thousands of citizens crowded those sessions and other demonstrations, verbally bludgeoning both the One Florida Initiative and Bush. Black student movements, dormant for years, were resurrected. Even members of his own party called Bush's tactics highhanded. But with an overwhelming GOP majority in the legislature and conservative Democrats eager to help, Bush pushed through his One Florida plan.

State Senator Kendrick Meek, one of the two sit-in heroes, labeled the moment the lowest point in Florida racial relations in the past thirty-five years. He and other African-Americans called for a statewide voter registration campaign to defeat their political enemies at all levels, starting with the Governor's brother. "We didn't need George W. doing to the whole nation what Jeb was doing to Florida," said Elmore Bryant.

In September 1999, the NAACP pledged $9 million to a nationwide voter registration campaign, and $400,000 was eventually earmarked for Florida, the most important battleground of all. Black leaders barnstormed the state registering voters, an effort that reminded many of the 1960s civil rights movement. "There was a tremendous spirit just then, like the old days," said Vivian Kelly of Gadsden County, another longtime civil rights campaigner.

Thus the stage was set for Election Day 2000, when the black vote went from 10 percent of the state total in 1996 to 16 percent, according to exit polls. Some 300,000 more blacks voted than four years before--and that only includes those who were actually allowed to vote. But while black Floridians were registering in unprecedented numbers, state officials were busy removing other blacks from the voting rolls. After a 1997 Miami mayoral election, the Miami Herald discovered that 105 people had voted despite having felonies on their records and having never received clemency, making them ineligible under Florida law. The article, part of a series that helped overturn that election because of voter fraud, also revealed that of the total number of felons found on the county voter rolls, 71 percent were registered Democrats.

Within weeks, the GOP-controlled state legislature passed a sweeping voter fraud bill despite an unprecedented effort by county elections supervisors to block it. The measure would unfairly thwart citizens from voting instead of encouraging voter turnout, said the supervisors, who actually conduct elections. Among other provisions, the bill called for the strict enforcement of an 1868 law that took the vote away from all former prisoners who had not received clemency, no matter how long they had been out of prison and out of trouble. Florida is one of only fourteen states that do not automatically restore civil rights to former prisoners who have completed their sentence and parole. Florida's former prisoners must petition the Office of Executive Clemency for the restoration of their civil rights, and the final decision is made by the governor and three other members of the Cabinet, all of whom are partisan politicians. Before the voter fraud bill passed, a black Democratic legislator proposed another bill, to grant automatic restoration of rights after completion of sentence and parole, but it never made it out of committee.

That lawmaker had good reason to worry. Blacks would bear the brunt of this voter purge. While the population of Florida is about 15 percent black, the population of Florida prisons is 54 percent black. Once released and having completed parole, former prisoners have often found clemency difficult if not impossible to achieve. According to literature provided to former prisoners by the state, individuals can be denied the restoration of their civil rights for many reasons, including the possibility that they owe child support (which a father coming out of jail probably does), a history of drug or alcohol problems and even traffic offenses.

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