Intimidating Florida Voters (Jim Hightower)

Saturday 9th October 2004

by Jim Hightower

<snip> In 2000, Jeb used such crude tactics as illegally purging voter lists to help engineer his brother’s 537-vote "victory" in that election - and now, here he goes again. As one peer of Florida’s GOP establishment candidly puts it: "A Democrat can’t win a statewide election in Florida without a high turnout of African-Americans. It’s no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible."

The Orlando League of Voters can attest to that. This African-American civic group has played a big role in turning Orlando from a Republican stronghold into a city that increasingly votes Democratic. Their reward for getting involved in the democratic process is to have Jeb Bush’s state police suddenly come knock-knock-knocking on the doors of some 50 of the League’s grassroots leaders. These leaders, mostly elderly Black women, find it frightening to be confronted in their homes by armed troopers interrogating them about their electoral participation.

They are not charged with any crime. Instead, police say they’re investigating vague allegations that some voter fraud might have occurred in this spring’s mayoral election. Yet, Jeb’s own state police honcho wrote in a May letter, that "there was no basis to support the allegations," and he declared "this matter closed."

But it was not closed. Police now say the chief’s letter was "poorly worded," and the intimidating in-home interrogations continued this summer as the presidential election heated up. Jeb’s police action is creating a blanket of fear among the League’s volunteers who worry that their perfectly-legal efforts will land them in jail. <snip>

www.jimhightower.com
http://yubanet.com/artman/publish/printer_13996.shtml
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=3649

It makes me sick.

so close to an "election".

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Remember when America was a Free Nation with a Free Press?