Pushing to Be Counted in Fla. Groups Say That Blacks May Not Be Heard...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28107-2004Oct12?language=printer

Pushing to Be Counted in Fla.
Groups Say That Blacks May Not Be Heard at Polls

By Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 13, 2004; Page A01

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nearly a dozen African American ministers and civil rights leaders walked into the Duval County election office here, television cameras in tow, with a list of questions: How come there were not more early voting sites closer to black neighborhoods? How come so many blacks were not being allowed to redo incomplete voter registrations? Who was deciding all this?

Standing across the office counter under a banner that read "Partners in Democracy" was the man who made those decisions, election chief Dick Carlberg. Visibly angry, the Republican explained why he decided the way he had: "We call it the law."

Black leaders said the scene at the supervisor's office last week was reminiscent of a blocked schoolhouse door at the height of desegregation. They charge that GOP officials are deliberately using the law to keep black people off the rolls and hinder them from voting.

Four years ago, ballots cast from black neighborhoods throughout Florida were four times as likely to go uncounted as those from white neighborhoods. Nowhere was the disparity more apparent than in Duval County, where 42 percent of 27,000 ballots thrown out came from four heavily Democratic black precincts.

..more..

"But hundreds more could show up at the polls only to find they cannot vote. The office has flagged 1,448 registrations as incomplete, and as of last week had yet to process 11,500 more. "
...

"Carlberg's office, as well as Hood's, said the real blame belongs with the Democratic-leaning groups that targeted minority voters and then turned in sloppy and incomplete registrations. The disproportionate number of black Democratic registrations flagged, said Carlberg spokeswoman Erin Moody, is a function of "who those groups are targeting."
...

" Afterward, the Rev. James Sampson, president of the Baptist Ministerial Conference in Duval, declared that "the spirit of George Wallace" is "alive and well."

It didn't matter, they are doing the same thing this year.

blaming Eleanor Roosevelt for "discovering the coloreds." The "race problem" was all her fault!

Them damn advocacy groups! It is all their fault!

Florida again.

But do they want costly disturbances and civil unrest, too? This, on top of all the hurricanes?

They are asking for the black community to explode into violence, like they did in the sixties. And, I would not blame them one bit.

Keep it up, Jeb and *. Divide the country some more. If you manage to steal the election again, you may be left with a mess you cannot fix.

why is all of this going on at the last minute!
what have they been doing about this for the past four years!

maybe they should take notice that the law should be used to protect us and bring us closer to equality. I country divided against itself cannot stand.

Florida passed an early voting law. Places like Tampa has around 8 libraries that you can vote at. Duval to obey the law has ONE at the SOE Office.