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Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!! [/Gomer Pyle]
Posted by Jill | 1:47 PM
Looks like the Bushistas have succeeded in disenfranchising as many potential Democratic voters as possible.

And they wonder why black Americans refuse to join up with the Republicans?

Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.

The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting.

But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

[snip]

The commission, in a report earlier this year, said that in Florida, where President Bush (news - web sites) won a bitterly disputed election in 2000 by 537 votes, black voters had been 10 times more likely than non-black voters to have their ballots rejected and were often prevented from voting because their names were erroneously purged from registration lists.

Additionally, Florida is one of 14 states that prohibit ex-felons from voting. Seven percent of the electorate but 16 percent of black voters in that state are disenfranchised.

In other swing states, 4.6 percent of voters in Iowa, but 25 percent of blacks, were disenfranchised in 2000 as ex-felons. In Nevada, it was 4.8 percent of all voters but 17 percent of blacks; in New Mexico, 6.2 percent of all voters but 25 percent of blacks.

In total, 13 percent of all black men are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, according to the Commission on Civil Rights.

"This has a huge effect on elections but also on black communities which see their political clout diluted. No one has yet explained to me how letting ex-felons who have served their sentences into polling booths hurts anyone," said Jessie Allen of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, which seeks to ensure fair multiracial elections, recently reported that registrars across the country often claimed not to have received voter registration forms or rejected them for technical reasons that could have been corrected easily before voting day if the applicant had known there was a problem.

Beasley said that many voters who had registered recently in swing states were likely to find their names would not be on the rolls when they showed up on Election Day.


This is reprehensible and disgusting, and the President's brother, Jeb Bush, is one of the primary offenders. People have given their lives in order that every American citizen be able to exercise this primary right -- and responsibility of citizenship. But the Bush family, and their cronies, believe that only those who vote for THEM should be permitted to vote.

This is not a dictatorship, nor is it a kingdom with the Bushes as the Royal Family. These people are fundamentally opposed to everything this country stands for, and they MUST be voted out on November 2nd via a RESOUNDING message. It had better be resounding, because between disenfranchisement and rigged voting machines, if it's anything else, Bush wins. Why do you think all the advance polling skews the sample towards Republicans? They want us to stay home, folks. They want us discouraged.

So please...tell all your friends that if they value democracy, or even if they don't, do not reward this sort of behavior with another term.

Thank you, and may God bless America, because no one else will.
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