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Overview
Race and the Equal Right to Vote: NAACP v. Katherine Harris et al.
In 2000, the NAACP made extensive efforts to register new voters and to encourage its members to vote. As a result of the efforts of the NAACP, the NAACP National Voter Fund, and other organizations, turnout among Black voters in Florida increased significantly in the November 7, 2000 general election, compared to recent general elections.
However, African-American and Haitian-American voters in Florida were confronted with a multitude of non-uniform election practices that impeded their exercise of the franchise or disenfranchised them. In particular, (1) due to the disproportionate use of unreliable voting machines, among other reasons, Black precincts experienced a disproportionate number of ballots with no vote counted for the office of President of the United States, (2) Black voters were wrongfully purged from official lists of eligible voters, and (3) the voter registration applications of Black voters were not processed properly. These unjustified barriers to voting were mainly caused by the state's failure to keep the complete official list of eligible voters at the polls, inadequate processes for verifying the registration of voters not appearing on precinct lists, and the failure to offer affidavits to voters who did not bring a photo identification. In addition, voters who were entitled to assistance were denied the assistance they needed in order to effectively vote for candidates of their choice.
For weeks following the presidential elections, the nation was transfixed by the issue of voting irregularities – thrusting little-known words like "butterfly" ballots and dimpled chads into everyday American vocabulary. Although election irregularities are documented in numerous cases each election, they rarely make it to the top of the nation's agenda as did the balloting problems encountered in this November's high-stakes, well-matched presidential election – especially in Florida.
The 2000 Presidential 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.
There were widespread reports in newspapers across Florida describing how Black voters were intimidated and kept from voting. Among the allegations were complaints from voters who were allegedly turned away from the polls for showing up without their voter registration cards but were not permitted to vote by signing affidavits that they are registered to vote, voters who were intimidated by a Florida Highway Patrol checkpoint set up in precincts where nearly one of every three voters is Black. Haitian-American voters in Miami-Dade County also claimed they were not given language assistance as required by law.
The NAACP, one of the plaintiffs in the recently-filed lawsuit, said a poll watcher in Hillsborough County reported a deputy posted outside a polling place asked Black men for identification and turned them away after checking their police records. The civil rights group also said it had reports from Hillsborough County that ballots were disqualified because the voter's race on their IDs didn't match state records.
The reports were so widespread that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held hearings in early December to take testimony from Florida citizens who claimed that "discrimination, intimidation and fraudulent activity by election officials stripped them of their constitutional rights to vote on Election Day." The commission held subsequent hearings on January 11 and 12 in Tallahassee to hear from voting experts, elected officials and civil rights attorneys from various organizations. The ACLU Foundation of Florida's Equal Voting Rights Project presented recommendations for voting reform at the January 11th hearing.
After weeks of heated legal battles in local, state and federal courtrooms, Vice President Al Gore conceded and George W. Bush declared victory following a 5 - 4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that the Florida statutory standard for a hand recount of disputed ballots, which directs election officials to ascertain the "intent of the voter," is so imprecise a standard as to violate the constitutional requirement of "equal protection of the laws."
The basis for the legal challenge filed by the civil rights groups, including the ACLU, revolves around remedying a "flawed" system that, according to many civil rights advocates, made it harder for minority voters to cast votes than for white voters, who tended to vote in more affluent districts that use more reliable optical-scanning systems. Black voters disproportionately reside in precincts that use the cheaper, less efficient punch-card systems to cast their votes.
In an article published on-line through InsightMag.com, ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser points out that 64 percent of Florida's Black voters live in counties that used the punch-card system, while 56 percent of whites do. In addition, 63 percent of Gore's vote, which included heavy majorities among Black voters, were counted on punch-card machines while only 55 percent of Bush's vote was. This pattern was reversed in votes tallied by optical scanners, according to Glasser.
He cites a December 1 report in The New York Times concluding that counties that used punch-card machines produced ballots that showed no vote for president at a far higher rate than counties that used the more reliable and expensive optical-scanner machines. In 30 Florida counties that used optical scanners, for example, only three-tenths of 1 percent of the ballots were recorded as having no presidential vote. But in 15 counties that used punch-card machines, 1.86 percent registered no presidential vote – more than six times the rate of optical scanners. Overall, according to the Times, voters using the now infamous "Votomatic" machines showed no vote for president at a rate five times higher than voters using optical scanners.
The N.A.A.C.P., the ACLU and other civil rights groups argue that these disparities have a "clear, racial subtext."
Despite the fact that a 1988 federal report recommended that punch-card ballots be abandoned, punch cards voting machines are still the single most common voting system in the country, used in more than 500 counties and 37 percent of all precincts. The Washington Post reported that 26 counties in Florida use the antiquated punch-card system, while 38 counties use optical scanners.
