Could Turnout Turn Jeb Out? (Page 2)

Quincy, Florida

In his successful 1998 campaign, Bush pitched himself as someone who would manage the state by building bipartisan consensus. Instead, the stubborn, easy-to-anger and highly partisan governor has proven to be a divisive figure who has been accused of politicizing state government. (Despite Bush's claim that Florida does not need federal help to fix local electoral systems, civil rights activists say national election standards are needed to force real reform. They remain skeptical about compromise legislation recently agreed upon by Congress, however; they worry that it allows states to erect new barriers to participation.) Bush's critics say he is vulnerable because of dissatisfaction with his school funding schemes and with his attempts to impose artificial standards on schools that lack basic resources. They also believe that revelations about children getting lost and injured in the state's child welfare system have sown doubts about whether Bush's "run government like a business" management style is all it's cracked up to be. When McBride discusses the child welfare scandals, he highlights Bush's 1999 declaration that "as the new governor of this state, I am the person people will now look to to provide a solution. That's my responsibility, and I accept it." Instead, McBride says, Bush has offered "too many excuses and too little effective action." McBride barely beat Reno in primary voting so marred by irregularities that it took a week to certify a winner, but Reno quickly threw her support behind McBride; so did a third candidate, State Senator Daryl Jones, who opposed Bush's "One Florida" plan to gut affirmative-action programs.

Activists see the fight over the One Florida plan, which Bush proposed shortly after taking office, as the starting point for the organizing that threatens his re-election. Ten thousand people marched on the Capitol to protest One Florida, and legislators occupied the governor's office. After Tallahassee activist Barbara DeVane-Gilberg joined the occupation, Bush told her, "If you don't like what I'm doing, you can hold me accountable." DeVane-Gilberg grabbed his hand and said, "Not to worry, Governor--One Florida, one term." She now leads We ALL Count, a group that has worked to coordinate opposition to Bush. "Someone said after 2000: 'Why didn't we do something?' The answer was: 'What can we do--short of revolution?' Well, this is the revolution," she says.

The revolution's success will be determined by the ability of activists to gin up a turnout that can begin to rival the 2000 phenomenon. "Between now and November, our work is all about getting out the vote," says Florida AFL-CIO president Cindy Hall. Voter registration among union members is up 23 percent so far this year, and could yet see a 30 percent increase. And the state AFL-CIO, aided by the national AFL-CIO and several internationals, has committed $1 million to the get-out-the-vote drive. The campaign will be aided by a referendum (backed by McBride and opposed by Bush) to mandate reductions in class sizes in public schools--a priority of the teachers' union--that is expected to generate record turnouts by educators.

Ramped-up voter registration and identification campaigns by unions are paralleled by civil rights and seniors' groups. "Florida is the battleground state for democracy in 2002," says Andrew Gillum, a former Florida A&M student body president who works with the People for the American Way Foundation's "Arrive With Five" campaign. Wearing a "You Have the Right to Vote" T-shirt, Gillum asks Floridians to sign forms pledging to bring five other voters to the polls with them. The forms are fed into a computerized database that will power a massive get-out-the-vote drive. The "Arrive With Five" campaign has focused particular attention on African-American communities--whose votes formed 15 percent of the electorate in 2000, up from 10 percent in 1996. Working with the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens and local organizations, People for the American Way has developed "Election Protection," a program to distribute voter-education materials and monitor voting problems.

The September 10 primary mess provided a grim reminder that in Florida, even when citizens turn out they don't always get to cast ballots--or have them counted. It appears that serious efforts are now being made to fix the problems that were not resolved on Primary Day, although activists remain wary. They know there will still be problems. Up in Gadsden County, for instance, the new elections supervisor, Shirley Knight, the first African-American to hold that post, could not convince the majority-white county commission to increase the number of polling places. "So we'll still have voters driving 10 to 12 miles to the polls, which is a real hardship," frets Knight. But voters who make it to the polls should have an easier time of it; Knight has used state grants to purchase new equipment while simplifying the ballot design, developing voter-education programs and personally delivering absentee ballots to the homes of voters. While Gadsden County discarded almost 2,000 spoiled ballots two years ago, only four were discarded September 10. And, notes Knight, 43 percent of Gadsden County voters cast ballots that day--one of the state's highest turnout rates.

Knight still reflects on how things might have been different if she had been in charge in 2000. "You still hear people bring up how we might have a different President if we had had a better ballot," she says. "But they're not giving up on voting. Just the opposite--I think people are more determined to vote." That, says Brenda Holt, who is running as a Democrat for a seat on the county commission (if she's elected, her vote would tip the balance in favor of expanding the number of polling places), is the most important news out of Florida this fall. "I hear people everywhere saying they want to vote early, get their vote counted early," she says. "I still think we have to be watchful, because we've seen it all break down here. But if we can get these people out and get their votes counted, and I think we can, Gadsden County might just decide it all again. The difference is that this time, we might just get the result we want."

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