State scraps controversial voting list of potential felons

[Khephra]

State scraps controversial voting list of potential felons

Associated Press


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida elections officials said Saturday a list of people believed to be convicted felons would not be used to bar them from voting this year.

The decision was made after it was reported that the list contained few people identified as Hispanics because of a flaw in how it was compiled. Of the nearly 48,000 people on the list created by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, only 61 were classified as Hispanics.

That was because when voters register in Florida, they can identify themselves as Hispanic. But the FDLE potential felons database has no Hispanic category, which excludes many people from the list if they put that as their race.

The problem was unintentional, said Nicole de Lara, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood.

"Nevertheless, Supervisors of Elections are required to uphold their constitutional obligation and will continue to work with Clerks of the Court to ensure that ineligible felons are removed from the rolls, a process that has always been a part of their due diligence," Hood said in a statement.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Felons%20Voting%20Hispanics

[Liberal Veteran]

1. That's got to make the African-American community a little suspicious.

Things that make you go HMMMM....

[mermaid]

3. Yeah, Especially When You Consider

That the vast majority of Hispanics in Florida are Cubans...the only Hispanic subgroup that almost, as a block, votes Repuke.
Things that make ya go HMMMMMMM.....

See, in Texas and California, and Arizona and New Mexico, the majority Hispanic population is Mexican. Not so, Florida...theirs is mostly Cuban.

Of course they wouldn't wanna whack good little Repukes off the ballots in Florida...no, they just wanna whack people that will likely vote Democratic off the rolls...

[Liberal Veteran]

4. I'm sure it was just a clerical oversight.....

...sorta like Bush's military records being destroyed.

[Jade Fox]

9. I understand that Cuban-American support of Bush has eroded....

because of his policies towards Cuba. Another poster here at DU
said that a couple of weeks ago, based on personal knowledge of the
Florida Cuban community. Hope its true!

[shockingelk]

12. Hmmmmmmmmm, indeed

From the article:

"of the nearly 48,000 people on the list created by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, only 61 were classified as Hispanics ... But the potential felons database has no Hispanic category."

Can someone how people could be classified as Hispanic if there's no Hispanic category?

Is the article just written sloppily?

[trogdor]

15. No.

One DB has a column that doesn't exist in the other DB. When you merge the two, bad stuff happens, or the extra column gets dropped.

Anyway, somebody was probably about to call Jeb on the fact that the Cuban suspected felons were being allowed to vote while Black suspected felons were not...probably a portly fellow wearing a baseball cap and a scraggly beard.

[lovedems]

2. Unintentional? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Who do they think their foolin'?

[Spangle]

5. Can't admit the TRUTH

that list was soooo flawed. After the media got ahold of the list and was DEEPLY investigating it, tossing the list is the only way to make the findings "non-news".)

Actualy, now that the media has the lists, it would be less likly that a person who was on that list would have be prevented from voting if they were wrongly on that list. People were contacting those people and informing them.

[Kenneth ken]

6. bait and switch tactic

is what it sounds like to me. The state put out their list, and now has discarded it in favor of a different method. The questions to ask are, how will the new method be verified for accuracy, and how much time will the public have to review it before the elections?

from the article (emphasis mine):

"Nevertheless, Supervisors of Elections are required to uphold their constitutional obligation" and will find other ways to ensure felons are removed from the rolls, Hood said in a statement.

*snip*

The purge of felons from voter rolls has been a thorny issue since the 2000 presidential election. A private company hired to identify ineligible voters before the election produced a list with scores of errors, and elections supervisors used it to remove voters without verifying its accuracy. A federal lawsuit led to an agreement to restore rights to thousands of voters.

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Sounds suspiciously like a setup

to use again what were "successful" tactics in FL in 2000. There need to be watchdogs at all voting precints to make sure no voters are disenfranchised.

[tlcandie]

13. I agree whole-heartedly...

I'm sure jebbie has another devious plan. I'm sure there are serveral plans in case one doesn't work or seems too risky. These are professionals.

[Bandit]

7. Saw this on C-Span this AM and went Whaaaa

They have only five racial catagories on their list. Black, White, Asian, Native American, and other. If you didn't list yourself as one of these races you were not added to the list. It is totally based upon race. They openly admitted that. There is only one race. The Human Race. Other than that there is just shades of color or hair texture. Genitically speaking all Humans have basically the same DNA

[dbt]

8. Come out, Jeb.

It'a a beautiful, sunny day. Let the Light shine on you, Jeb. Hey, WAIT! Where are you going??

Come BACK, Jeb!

*crickets*

:evilgrin:
dbt

[shockingelk]

11. Those damn computers!

Maybe the gremlins are partisan hacks.

[Khephra]

14. kick