Doubts cast on voter database (FL felons again)

[Bushfire]

Posted on Tue, Jun. 29, 2004

POLITICS

Doubts cast on voter database

More questions are raised about the accuracy of the state's central voter database, used to come up with a list of nearly 48,000 voters who have been identified as possible felons ineligible to vote.

BY GARY FINEOUT

[e-mail]


TALLAHASSEE - The accuracy of Florida's $2 million central voter database came under fire again Monday, following revelations that the list does not include the names of thousands of former criminals whose right to vote was restored prior to 1977.

The database was drawn up in response to the chaotic 2000 presidential election that President Bush won. It was supposed to help the state weed out felons, as well as people who had died, from Florida's voter rolls. Ex-convicts are prohibited from voting in Florida unless they have their rights restored by the state.

But in early June, a New York legal center said it had found evidence of flaws after comparing lists maintained by the state's clemency office -- which keeps records on felons whose rights are restored -- and the lists used by the state Division of Elections for the central database.

<snip>

According to paper logs provided to the Brennan Center, more than 11,000 ex-convicts had their rights restored by Florida officials between 1964 and 1977.

more...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9034893.htm?1c

[Skarbrowe]

1. I don't know if it will help much

but in Broward County, South Florida, Brenda Snipes the fairly new Elections Supervisor has hired two people to work on nothing but cleaning up the felony voter roles. I haven't heard of any other county doing this. Hopefully they are.

jitters

Skarbrowe

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Somebody needs to sue to get an injunction against the list being used.

[gatlingforme]

3. yeah, and I would like to know why in the state of Florida, people

like to get screwed all the time and do nothing about it. IT'S four years now, and they are still disenfranchised. WTF??????

[tlcandie]

4. Good question!! And jebbie is still in! I live here .. :/

I voted his arse out, yet he's still here!!! Why on earth was he not voted out? I don't understand how people could continue to allow him to stay in office!! :puke:

[Cerridwen]

5. I posted this link over at . . .

Poll: Bush, Kerry at Dead Heat in Florida
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x653552

It fits here too, so, here ya go:

From the Tallahassee Democrat


Posted on Wed, May. 19, 2004
Secrecy surrounds voter eligibility

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/8699040.htm

"The state has identified 47,687 Florida voters - 1,671 in the Big Bend alone - as suspected felons possibly ineligible to vote. Who's on the list? It's hard to know, thanks to an unusual veil of secrecy."

[mom cat]

7. Welcome to DU. Keep up the good work!

[yellowcanine]

6. This is B.S. The Justice Dept. has the power under the Voting Right's Act

of 1965 to take over the voting registration process in Florida. If they would do it now they could get the lists corrected by November. Of course John Ashcroft would have to divert a few lawyers from the task of snooping on American citizens and making sure there aren't any statues with bare titties in the nation's capital.