[Marxism] BBC: Fla GOP to block voters, jam up Black poll places

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Watch BBC video tonight and tomorrow, 10/26-7
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
beginning at 5.30pm EST, available for 24 hours.)


From: palast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:palast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 1:08 PM
Subject: Tonight BBC TV to Reveal New Florida Vote Scandal

Republican "Caging List"
To: walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <7F3244A735B34334B23869DCB70AE.MAI@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Tonight BBC TV to Reveal New Florida Vote Scandal
Republican "Caging List"

BBC Television News On-Line
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Greg Palast, reporting

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign
headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in
violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's
African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight
investigation reveals.

Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the
Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national
research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page
so-called "caging list".

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in
predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of
Jacksonville, Florida.

An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the
list, told Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they
would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election
day."

Ion Sancho, a Democrat, noted that Florida law allows
political party operatives inside polling stations to stop
voters from obtaining a ballot.

---Mass challenges---

They may then only vote "provisionally" after signing an
affidavit attesting to their legal voting status.

Mass challenges have never occurred in Florida. Indeed,
says Mr Sancho, not one challenge has been made to a voter
"in the 16 years I've been supervisor of elections."

"Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the
voting process and cause chaos on election day; and
discourage voters from voting."

Sancho calls it "intimidation." And it may be illegal.

In Washington, well-known civil rights attorney, Ralph
Neas, noted that US federal law prohibits targeting
challenges to voters, even if there is a basis for the
challenge, if race is a factor in targeting the voters.

The list of Jacksonville voters covers an area with a
majority of black residents.

When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list,
Republican spokespersons claim the list merely records
returned mail from either fundraising solicitations or
returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify
their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign
literature.

Republican state campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher
stated the list was not put together "in order to create" a
challenge list, but refused to say it would not be used in
that manner.

Rather, she did acknowledge that the party's poll workers
will be instructed to challenge voters, "Where it's stated
in the law."

There was no explanation as to why such clerical matters
would be sent to top officials of the Bush campaign in
Florida and Washington.

---Private detective---

In Jacksonville, to determine if Republicans were using the
lists or other means of intimidating voters, we filmed a
private detective filming every "early voter" - the
majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle with
blacked-out windows.

The private detective claimed not to know who was paying
for his all-day services.

On the scene, Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown said
the surveillance operation was part of a campaign of
intimidation tactics used by the Republican Party to
intimate and scare off African American voters, almost all
of whom are registered Democrats.

Greg Palast reporting. The film will be broadcast by
Newsnight tonight, Tuesday, 26 October, 2004 at 2230 BST
(6:30pm New York time).

==================
Contact: media@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


View Greg Palast's BBC Television film, "Bush Family Fortunes,"
available
this week on DVD in an updated edition from The Disinformation Company
at
http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm


To receive Greg's investigative reports click here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm










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