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Analysis of September 10th Voting Fiasco in Miami Dade Demonstrates
Disproportionate Impact on Racial Minorities, ACLU Says
October 21, 2002
Miami, FL ? African-American voters were disproportionately disenfranchised by Miami-Dade County's chaotic September 10th election, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida. An examination of 31 problem precincts revealed at least 1,544 lost votes, approximately half of which were from African-Americans, and a "lost vote" rate of 8.2% of all voters who went to the polls and signed in to vote.
"Not only are there a significant number of missing votes, but there's also an alarming racial disparity in the errors that occurred during the last election," said JoNel Newman, the Special ACLU Staff Attorney leading the ACLU's voting probe. A team of volunteer law students from the University of Miami assisted Newman.
"That the African-American community was disproportionately affected on September 10th is particularly egregious after the well-documented disparities of November 2000. This pattern of racial discrimination in voting simply cannot be allowed to continue," Newman added.
The study was conducted as part of monitoring of the settlement agreements in NAACP v. Harris, the landmark voting rights case filed after the November 2000 Presidential election. Among the legal advocacy groups now monitoring compliance with the settlement agreements are the ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, The Advancement Project, and People for the American Way Foundation.
Through the legal team's public records requests, the ACLU obtained a list of 198 precincts reported to have experienced machine malfunction on September 10th. Research revealed that those 198 precincts have an average African-American voter registration of 27%, a percentage far higher than the countywide 19% average. Of those 198 precincts, the legal team focused on 31 for which they had received the most complaints. The racial disparities in those precincts rise even higher, with an average African-American voter registration rate of 51%.
An in-depth analysis of those 31 precincts revealed that:
- 18,752 voters signed the rolls to vote, but only 17,208 votes were recorded. That is, 1,544 votes were lost due to election-day errors that included voters not being able to vote because working machines were not available or the failure of poll workers to cast the ballot as required when voters leave without pressing the red VOTE button.
- The analysis indicates that voters were disenfranchised at a rate of 8.2% due to "lost votes" resulting from the County's faulty election-day procedures. (During the November 2000 elections, voters who voted with punch card voting machines were disenfranchised at the rate of 4.37%, which was the spoilage rate attributed to the punch card process.)
- Because the average African-American voter registration rate is 51% in those precincts, approximately half of the 1,544 lost votes were of African-American voters.
- If the 8.2% "lost vote" rate is extrapolated to all 198 precincts with reported voting problems, there were 8,500 lost votes. Those lost votes represent the tip of the iceberg, since they do not account for voters who were disenfranchised because they were not able to sign in at all due to total polling place closure.
- While the average "lost vote" rate in the 31 targeted precincts is 8.2%, in some precincts that rate is as high as 21.5%.
Dr. Hugh Gladwin, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Florida International University, conducted a statistical analysis of the report for the ACLU. Dr. Gladwin compared the rate of problems at majority (+50%) black versus majority non-black precincts and determined that there was a large disparity.
"There was a 15% problem rate in non-black precincts versus a 28% problem rate in majority black precincts. The probability this could have occurred by chance is infinitesimal ? .00055," Dr. Gladwin noted. Dr. Gladwin also controlled for poverty versus race as a predictor of problem precincts. "Poverty was not a factor that mattered, race was," he added.
Presently, the legal team of NAACP v. Harris has sent Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections David Leahy a Notice of Material Breach, as required by the settlement agreement before further enforcement takes place. Mr. Leahy has until October 24th to respond, after which the legal team will review his response and consider alternatives.
The racial disparities revealed by the ACLU echo those of November 2000, detailed extensively by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission's report showed that while African-American voters made up only 11% of the electorate statewide, about 54% of the state's 180,000 spoiled ballots were cast by African-Americans. In Miami-Dade County in 2000, African American voters were three times more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected. The Commission concluded that, "The disenfranchisement of Florida's voters fell most harshly on the shoulders of black voters." The full report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights can be found online at http://www.usccr.gov/.
According to the Governor's Select Task Force on Election Procedures, Standards and Technology, Miami-Dade County's rate of blank or spoiled ballots under the punch card voting method in the November 2000 elections was 4.37%.
