Florida Dragging It's Feet on Restoring the Voting Rights of People Wrongly Purged FOUR Years Ago
More than 50% of those on the 2000 list were Black
As Al Gore and George W. Bush campaigned for president, James Bors
received what he called a "really nasty letter" telling him he could
not vote in the 2000 election. Four years later, the design engineer
believes it is still true. "I didn't realize I could vote," Bors, 40,
said from his home in Pasco County. Public records show state officials
in Tallahassee knew for almost a year that Bors and nearly 1,000 other
voters were wrongly put on the Secretary of State's 1999 and 2000 purge
lists. It was not until Aug. 12 that Secretary of State Glenda Hood
sent county election supervisors those names, following a month of
mediation with civil rights groups. Local election officials say they
are running out of time to return those people to the rolls before next
week's primary, raising the concern they'll be blocked from another
election. "I would be hard-pressed to get it done that fast," said Bill
Cowles, Orange County elections supervisor. He said his staff has not
finished reviewing 1,004 other voters identified for removal in 1999
and 2000 and now thought to be wrong. Restoring rights, "like
everything else, will fall into work in progress, along with poll
worker training, early voting, absentee voting ..." Cowles said. [more ]
]
