Home » About » Newsletters » February 2001
"ACLU of Florida Launches Equal Voting Rights Project to address
irregularities and
reform election practices"
By Howard L. Simon
Executive Director
For weeks following the 2000 Presidential Election, the nation was transfixed by the issue of voting irregularities - thrusting little-known words like "butterfly" ballots and dimpled chads into everyday vocabulary.
The high-stakes election raised plenty of questions about the handling of voting irregularities by state officials and judges, the disenfranchisement of minority voters and, of course, the need to update antiquated voting systems.
And now, thanks to a generous contribution from the California-based Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the ACLU of Florida has recently established the Florida Equal Voting Rights Project to ensure that voters are never again deprived of their right to vote.
A complex, multifaceted program, the Florida Equal Voting Rights Project was created to address the irregularities in Florida's electoral process that came to light during the last election.
Through the strategies of litigation, legislative lobbying, administrative reform, as well as public outreach and voter education, the project will strive to reform the way Floridians vote.
The grant will allow the ACLU to expand its staff to address voting reform and forge a collaborative arrangement between the ACLU of Florida, Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute.
Through the creation of a Florida Equal Voting Rights Project, the ACLU of Florida will have the resources to challenge, prospectively, the differential use of voting technology in Florida.
As was evident during last November's election, counties that used either punch card machines or optical scanning systems resulted in ballots that showed no vote for president or a spoiled ballot due to an "overvote" at a far higher rate than counties that used machines that alerted voters to errors. These disparities had a clear racial subtext: approximately 64 percent of Florida's black voters live in counties that used the error-prone punch card systems, which are cheaper, while 56 percent of whites do.
Aside from working for uniform ballot form in presidential and statewide elections, the Project also will investigate allegations that surfaced during the last election that many minority precincts were understaffed, and run by poorly trained workers who were unprepared for the deluge of voters.
Following the election, the ACLU also received reports that some voters were denied assistance at the polls, including the failure to provide Kreyol interpreters at polls in Haitian communities and assistance to Spanish-speaking voters. Voters were also denied an opportunity to use a second ballot if they spoiled their ballot. The ACLU Florida Equal Voting Rights Project plans to work with local election officials to help set state standards for the training of poll workers. In the diverse culture of Florida, the Project will work to ensure that poll workers have adequate language skills in precincts where Kreyol and Spanish are common languages.
Legislative action will be necessary to ensure electoral reform, which is why plans are underway to draft and propose legislation and administrative rules covering guidelines for vote recounts. The ACLU of Florida will also monitor legislative and Congressional redistricting plans following the 2000 Census.
Aside from inaccurate felony records that led to the purging of many minority voters, the Project also will address the issue of felony disenfranchisement. In Florida, approximately 31 percent of all Black men are barred from voting as a result of a prior felony conviction. Many are for non-violent drug offenses.
The ACLU Equal Voting Rights Project has also been working to restore the voting rights of ex-offenders. At a town hall meeting on Jan. 27, held in the Liberty City section of Miami, Project attorneys helped ex-felons navigate their way through the complicated and lengthy process of applying for the restoration of their voting rights. Plans are underway to file a class action lawsuit to remove government barriers that make it nearly impossible for individuals who have served a sentence for a past conviction to restore their voting rights.
The lack of voter education, with regard to both the machinery and the procedures, emerged as a key issue in this past election. The Project will design and distribute a "voters' rights" card to inform prospective voters of their rights as a voter and what they can do to address problems at the polls. The Project will also produce print and electronic public service announcements informing voters about the election process and voting machinery. The Project will also work with community and civic groups to sponsor voting orientation and training sessions.
Some of the problems voters encountered may have been the result of bureaucratic snafus that are unfortunately common at election time. And for these problems, there may be no judicial remedy, or at least no satisfactory judicial remedy. The ACLU of Florida Equal Voting Rights Project will need to identify these problems systematically to see where, and to what extent, they and other, similar problems exist and to fashion a remedy for them. In some cases, litigation will be possible; in other cases, we will have to mount a public education campaign designed to foster legislative or administrative changes.
Many of these issues will be addressed in this session of the Florida Legislature, in March and April. Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a commission to make recommendations on voting reforms, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding hearings in Florida on voting irregularities rampant during this past presidential election.
Along with the work the ACLU will need to do in the courts, we will be required to monitor and ensure that a voice for voting rights will be heard by both the Legislature and Gubernatorial Task Force. Democracy is too important to leave to the politicians!
