ACLU warns of continued voter disenfranchisement
Fears about massive voter disenfranchisement, particularly of minority voters, continue in Florida. Yesterday, the director of the ACLU Florida Voting Rights Project gave testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights, outlining a number of policies that could potentially lead to serious voting problems in that state. "The November 2000 election taught us that even the seemingly smallest voting policy, practice, procedure, or problem must be scrutinized in order to prevent widespread disfranchisement," Courtenay Strickland told the Commission. "Florida elections officials must devote time and energy to changing these policies and practices that together threaten to suppress the vote of large segments of the population, and particularly those within minority communities. Our democracy depends upon it." Among the policies identified by Strickland was Florida's provisional balloting program, in which voters whose eligibility is unknown by poll workers on election day are given an opportunity to vote using a provisional ballot. The ballot is then counted if it is confirmed that the voter was indeed registered to vote. Strickland said that a problem with the policy as it is currently written is that provisional ballots can be disqualified even if the voter was legally registered to vote, but did not vote in the correct precinct. [more 
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