au1929
au1929, it appears it is state Troopers doing the door-to-door "investigation." Are these the same troopers who established vehicle road blocks in the streets of African-American neighborhoods to try to intimadate voters on election day of the 2000 Florida election?
---BBB
Quote:Now, said Mr. Egan, the fear generated by state police officers going into people's homes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to voting is threatening to undo much of the good work of the league. He said, "One woman asked me, 'Am I going to go to jail now because I voted by absentee ballot?' "
According to Mr. Egan, "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."
Florida is a state that's very much in play in the presidential election, with some polls showing John Kerry in the lead. A heavy-handed state police investigation that throws a blanket of fear over thousands of black voters can only help President Bush.
The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State.
I can't imagine being proud to have found this article. Yes it does point out that it was state officials who were conducting the investigation rather than the FBI. Otherwise, the main point of the story that started the thread which was intimidating elderly black americans is still valid and even more so by the article MgC found. It would stink to anyone with an ounce of honor and integrity in their viens.
I suppose that you merely over looked the obvious bias of the article.
What bias could there be MgC? Officials came to the doors of elderly black americans who more than likely are going to vote for kerry in a state that is right now in kerry's favor in a state run by bush's brother. Geesh, it is obvious.
There ya go. First, they are investigating past elections, not future elections. Secondly, the black voters are complaining of being disenfranchised, so obviously it would be an integral part of this investigation to visit the black neighborhoods. I don't see how investigating a white neighborhood to answer complaints about black voter disenfranchisement would do any good, would you? Thirdly, this is mostly hype.
Reflect on the language of the article, how it develops the story and how it villianizes the authorities.
BBB
Yes I was going to say redneck peckerwood state troopers but that would not be nice
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Voting While Black
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 20, 2004
The smell of voter suppression coming out of Florida is getting stronger. It turns out that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, in which state troopers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando in a bizarre hunt for evidence of election fraud, is being conducted despite a finding by the department last May "that there was no basis to support the allegations of election fraud."
State officials have said that the investigation, which has already frightened many voters and intimidated elderly volunteers, is in response to allegations of voter fraud involving absentee ballots that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March. But the department considered that matter closed last spring, according to a letter from the office of Guy Tunnell, the department's commissioner, to Lawson Lamar, the state attorney in Orlando, who would be responsible for any criminal prosecutions.
The letter, dated May 13, said:
"We received your package related to the allegations of voter fraud during the 2004 mayoral election. This dealt with the manner in which absentee ballots were either handled or collected by campaign staffers for Mayor Buddy Dyer. Since this matter involved an elected official, the allegations were forwarded to F.D.L.E.'s Executive Investigations in Tallahassee, Florida.
"The documents were reviewed by F.D.L.E., as well as the Florida Division of Elections. It was determined that there was no basis to support the allegations of election fraud concerning these absentee ballots. Since there is no evidence of criminal misconduct involving Mayor Dyer, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement considers this matter closed."
Well, it's not closed. And department officials said yesterday that the letter sent out in May was never meant to indicate that the "entire" investigation was closed. Since the letter went out, state troopers have gone into the homes of 40 or 50 black voters, most of them elderly, in what the department describes as a criminal investigation. Many longtime Florida observers have said the use of state troopers for this type of investigation is extremely unusual, and it has caused a storm of controversy.
The officers were armed and in plain clothes. For elderly African-American voters, who remember the terrible torment inflicted on blacks who tried to vote in the South in the 1950's and 60's, the sight of armed police officers coming into their homes to interrogate them about voting is chilling indeed.
One woman, who is in her mid-70's and was visited by two officers in June, said in an affidavit: "After entering my house, they asked me if they could take their jackets off, to which I answered yes. When they removed their jackets, I noticed they were wearing side arms. ... And I noticed an ankle holster on one of them when they sat down."
Though apprehensive, she answered all of their questions. But for a lot of voters, the emotional response to the investigation has gone beyond apprehension to outright fear.
"These guys are using these intimidating methods to try and get these folks to stay away from the polls in the future,'' said Eugene Poole, president of the Florida Voters League, which tries to increase black voter participation throughout the state. "And you know what? It's working. One woman said, 'My God, they're going to put us in jail for nothing.' I said, 'That's not true.' "
State officials deny that their intent was to intimidate black voters. Mr. Tunnell, who was handpicked by Gov. Jeb Bush to head the Department of Law Enforcement, said in a statement yesterday: "Instead of having them come to the F.D.L.E. office, which may seem quite imposing, our agents felt it would be a more relaxed atmosphere if they visited the witnesses at their homes.''
When I asked a spokesman for Mr. Tunnell, Tom Berlinger, about the letter in May indicating that the allegations were without merit, he replied that the intent of the letter had not been made clear by Joyce Dawley, a regional director who drafted and signed the letter for Mr. Tunnell.
"The letter was poorly worded,'' said Mr. Berlinger. He said he spoke to Ms. Dawley about the letter a few weeks ago and she told him, "God, I wish I would have made that more clear." What Ms. Dawley meant to say, said Mr. Berlinger, was that it did not appear that Mayor Dyer himself was criminally involved.
McG
The also intimidate the vulnerable
Why? The mere fact that cop carries a weapon intimidates people? As if the cop is going to pull out his service weapon and pop a cap in some poor old black woman because of the way she voted?
McGentrix wrote:There ya go. First, they are investigating past elections, not future elections. Secondly, the black voters are complaining of being disenfranchised, so obviously it would be an integral part of this investigation to visit the black neighborhoods. I don't see how investigating a white neighborhood to answer complaints about black voter disenfranchisement would do any good, would you? Thirdly, this is mostly hype.
Reflect on the language of the article, how it develops the story and how it villianizes the authorities.
Why investigate it now? Could it be because it is election time again? No, I think there is simply no limit of how low the bush family is willing to go. It is like they have the whole United States locked in or something. (I know you think that is a conspiracy nut thought but nevertheless)
They are investigating fraud in the Mayor race in Orlando.
*edited to correct city*
McG
If you had any awareness of the history of the blacks in the south you would understand.
McGentrix wrote:They are investigating fraud in the Mayor race in Miami.
Maybe you are right and it is not an attempt by the bush family to scare would be kerry voters.
Everyone they have questioned is going to vote for Kerry? What kind of insight do you have that no one else has?
McGentrix wrote:What kind of insight do you have that no one else has?
I might inquire of you the same.
Without any sourcing you have offered several opinions characterizing this police action (and that's what it is) as innocuous. In fact you have described the investigation as something only someone with inside information might verify.
I doubt whether you can prove anything close to what you are contending, thus I'm not buying it (and it does not appear as if anyone else is, either).
Do you wish to keep selling it to no one (or wouldn't you just rather concede that you don't know what you are talking about)?
I'll leave it to you to read the newspaper PDiddie.
McGentrix wrote:Everyone they have questioned is going to vote for Kerry? What kind of insight do you have that no one else has?
Who said, everyone? I am sure some of them (more than likey almost if not all) are would be kerry voters.
