Thursday, July 15, 2004

Revenge of the Florida Felon List

Remember the Florida felon list that disenfranchised thousands of (mostly African-American) non-felons in 2000? Well, the ever-worthwhile Whiskey Bar has a good summary of what's going on with the 2004 incarnation. Short version: same old story, only different.

But once they had a chance to examine the list, it didn't take too long for the media to realize there was something strange about it: It had virtually no Hispanic names on it. Apparently, in the entire state of Florida there were roughly 50 Hispanic ex-cons whose named needed to be lifted from the voting rolls - this in a state where 1 in 5 residents is Hispanic.
For 'Hispanic', read Cuban-American--a group that polls at about 66% for Bush. So instead of preventing non-felons from voting, the list would have allowed Cuban-American felons to vote.

Oh, yeah--did I mention that this was an 'accident'?

The good news is that they're dumping the list altogether for the 2004 elections. The bad news is that they have other tricks up their sleeves (see: Diebold).