Commission Votes to Release Report
Feature Story by Becky Dansky - 6/12/2001
Washington D.C.- June 8, 2001Today the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted 6-2 to release its report on the 2000 Florida general election. The Commission's investigation is based on 3 days of hearings, over 30 hours of testimony from over 100 witnesses and a systematic review of more than 118,000 sheets of paper.
The report revealed that during the 2000 presidential election in Florida restrictive statutory provisions, wide-ranging errors and inadequate and unequal resources in the election process denied countless Floridians the right to vote. The disenfranchisement of Florida's voters was most significant in the case of African American voters, who were nearly ten times more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected in Florida. Approximately 54% of the rejected ballots were cast by African Americans, despite the fact that African Americans comprised only 11% of Floridians who voted in the 2000 election.
Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, reacted to the report: "The Civil Rights Commission's report on the 2000 Florida general election is a shocking confirmation of our worst fears about the effects of voting irregularities on the rights of the state's African American citizens."
According to the report, nine of the ten counties with the largest African American populations had spoilage rates above the Florida average. Gadsden County, which has the highest percentage of African American voters also had the highest number of spoiled ballots. Conversely, of the ten counties with the highest percentage of white voters, only two counties had spoilage rates above the state's average.
In addition, the report revealed that a disproportionate number of African American voters were erroneously purged from the voter roles due to spoiled ballots rendered by undercounts and overcounts. The failure to incorporate Motor Voter registrants and the notorious, state-sponsored, erroneous purging procedures significantly contributed to the dilution of the African American vote. For example, in Miami-Dade, the state's largest county, over 65% of the names on the purge list consisted of African Americans who represent only 20.4% of the population. Hispanics were 57.4% of the population, but only 16.6% of the purge list; whites, 77.6% of the population but 17.6% of those purged.
“We commend the Commission for its comprehensive investigation. Sadly, the findings are not surprising, The Report substantiates the widespread problems of disenfranchisement of African American and other minority voters in Florida which we became aware of on election day,” said Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee.
Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry hopes that the report spurs elected officials to take measures to ensure that the events in Florida are not repeated there or elsewhere. "One of the most disappointing things to me is that I thought there would be more interest in electoral reform,"said Berry. LaShawn Warren, ACLU Legislative Counsel, agrees that now is the time for legislators to act. "Although the 2002 and 2004 elections may seem distant," Warren added, "we are already very late if we want to get the reforms in place to achieve equality in the polling place."
The Commission's report recommends that all reform measures require clear guidance, responsibility and accountability. There must be effective monitoring systems in place and adequate resources must be distributed to ensure the meaningful implementation of these reforms.
