Beating a Dead horse I know...
But I just finished reading a ghastly account by an American Ex-Pat journalist that works for the Guardian regarding the erasure of thousands of voting rights in Florida. Now the piece I'm reading is published in a book that has a serious Right Wing bashing agenda. But the story is horrifying none the less. Whether or not Fla Sec of State Harris had an agenda (she was working for the GWB campaign, and working for GWB's brother) or not is probably immaterial. What is scary and very telling is that the only journalistic efforts to uncover this erasure of voting rights was done by Salon.com and the Guardian, an internet journal and a British Journal. American Journalists stayed away from the story.
The charge this author makes is that due to mistakes in the "purge" files of the Voting Registers in FLA 57,000 Americans were denied their voting rights. Some were denied this right legally as the list was SUPPOSED to contain 100% felons. However the list was so full of errors that this author claims 15% of the voters on the list were there incorrectly. Among those on the list was a circuit judge in FLA and a woman working for the voter reg office. A vast majority of the people on the lists were poor white, African Americans and Hispanic Voters..........
I.E. Democrats.
This author sees a vast conspiracy to complete the promise Jeb made publicly to deliver FLA to his brother in the '00 Elections. The company that created these purge files is run by a team of Right Wing republicans. I'm not sure that I am that paranoid. Demographics say that unfortunately Felons are the same demographic as the three listed above.
What is scary is that his information came to light DURING the recounts. No media outlet took up the story. The author (thankfully) doesn't ascribe this to a Right Wing Conspiracy but to simple Economics. Some of the Networks looked into the story, by calling the Gov Jeb's office (who surprisingly said that no such thing had happened) and then let the matter drop. The Author's point is that none of the Networks wanted to spend the money researching the story.
Apparently Salon did research the story and this is how they came up with the 15% figure for the percentage of voters turned away at the polls due to mistakes in the purge list. The FLA election was flawed from the start and should have been thrown out.
GWB won by less than 600 votes in FLA if my memory serves. 15% of 57000, even when you discount out 1) those who would not have voted anyway and 2) those who would have Voted for GWB; is a heck of a lot more than 600.
Looks like Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris delivered FLA as promised.
But I just finished reading a ghastly account by an American Ex-Pat journalist that works for the Guardian regarding the erasure of thousands of voting rights in Florida. Now the piece I'm reading is published in a book that has a serious Right Wing bashing agenda. But the story is horrifying none the less. Whether or not Fla Sec of State Harris had an agenda (she was working for the GWB campaign, and working for GWB's brother) or not is probably immaterial. What is scary and very telling is that the only journalistic efforts to uncover this erasure of voting rights was done by Salon.com and the Guardian, an internet journal and a British Journal. American Journalists stayed away from the story.
The charge this author makes is that due to mistakes in the "purge" files of the Voting Registers in FLA 57,000 Americans were denied their voting rights. Some were denied this right legally as the list was SUPPOSED to contain 100% felons. However the list was so full of errors that this author claims 15% of the voters on the list were there incorrectly. Among those on the list was a circuit judge in FLA and a woman working for the voter reg office. A vast majority of the people on the lists were poor white, African Americans and Hispanic Voters..........
I.E. Democrats.
This author sees a vast conspiracy to complete the promise Jeb made publicly to deliver FLA to his brother in the '00 Elections. The company that created these purge files is run by a team of Right Wing republicans. I'm not sure that I am that paranoid. Demographics say that unfortunately Felons are the same demographic as the three listed above.
What is scary is that his information came to light DURING the recounts. No media outlet took up the story. The author (thankfully) doesn't ascribe this to a Right Wing Conspiracy but to simple Economics. Some of the Networks looked into the story, by calling the Gov Jeb's office (who surprisingly said that no such thing had happened) and then let the matter drop. The Author's point is that none of the Networks wanted to spend the money researching the story.
Apparently Salon did research the story and this is how they came up with the 15% figure for the percentage of voters turned away at the polls due to mistakes in the purge list. The FLA election was flawed from the start and should have been thrown out.
GWB won by less than 600 votes in FLA if my memory serves. 15% of 57000, even when you discount out 1) those who would not have voted anyway and 2) those who would have Voted for GWB; is a heck of a lot more than 600.
Looks like Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris delivered FLA as promised.
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