'Jim Crow' Returns?

[Kevin Robert Dean]

'Jim Crow' Returns? 

<http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,306771-412,00.shtml>
 
MIAMI, Aug. 16, 2001
  
(CBS) Warning of a return to the days of "Jim Crow," a
Florida voter rights group has sued state officials to
halt parts of an election reform law enacted in the
wake of the disputed presidential recount. 

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Florida Voters
League Inc. objected to a list of voter
responsibilities that will be posted at polling places
along with a list of voter rights. The signs amount to
literacy tests and would discourage minority voters,
the group argued. 
 
Voters will be directed to — among other things —
"study and know candidates and issues," "bring proper
identification to the polling station" and check their
completed ballots for accuracy. 

"We believe that the voter responsibilities section of
that act is a step so far backward as to be a literacy
test," said JoNel Newman, a lawyer with the Florida
Equal Voting Rights Project, a project of the American
Civil Liberties Union of Florida. 

The suit was filed on behalf of Charles Major Jr., a
black voting-rights activist from Key West. It also
targets new procedures for removing ex-felons from
voter rolls, saying the burden of determining which
voters are ex-felons falls to county officials, who
would force voters to prove their eligibility. 

Florida's voting system endured intense scrutiny after
a razor-thin margin forced a recount and gave George
W. Bush the presidency over Al Gore. Last spring,
Florida lawmakers overhauled the state's election
laws. 
 
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Monroe
County Elections Supervisor Harry Sawyer Jr. are named
as defendants in the lawsuit. 

David Host, a Harris spokesman, said only one of the
three provisions at issue was part of Harris' original
reform legislation. 

"Nevertheless, as chief elections officer, she will
vigorously carry out her duty to defend all of these
provisions," Host said. 

Sawyer declined to comment on the specifics of the
lawsuit but noted that the elections reform package
has yet to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department.


Shortly before last year's contentious election,
Florida purged voter rolls of felons and mistakenly
removed people whose right to vote should have
remained intact. 

The new election law, the lawsuit contends, "codifies
reliance on a certified mail notification procedure
that places the burden for remaining on the voter
rolls on the voter." 

The new law provides for provisional ballots if a
person's name is mistakenly removed. 

But, the lawsuit complains, "if an individual is
erroneously purged from the voter rolls but casts a
provisional ballot because his or her name does not
appear on the voter list, and fails to resolve the
question of eligibility, that provisional ballot will
not be counted because the records of the Supervisor
of Elections will continue to reflect that the voter
is ineligible." 

Also under the law, voters are also responsible to
"Know how to operate voting equipment properly,"
"Report problems or violations of election law," "Ask
questions when confused," "Check his or her completed
ballot for accuracy." 

"The statement of responsibilities makes no mention of
the fact that failure to do so is not a bar to
voting," the lawsuit contends. In the 2000 vote,
Democrats blamed problems with some voting machines
and flaws with certain ballots for votes that Gore
allegedly lost. 

In January, civil rights groups including the NAACP
filed a separate lawsuit charging that black voters
were disenfranchised in November's elections by
institutionalized racism. The case is pending. 

Florida was among several Southern states that enacted
"Jim Crow" laws, legalizing segregation of public
schools, restrooms, transportation and beaches and
disenfranchising black voters. 

©MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,306771-412,00.shtml


=====
Kevin Dean
Buffalo, NY
ICQ: 8616001
http://www.yaysoft.com

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