- Originally published in THE HARTFORD COURANT on October 29, 2004
Copyright 2004 The Hartford Courant Company
By: Juan Figueroa
Juan A. Figueroa is former president and general counsel of the Puerto
Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. To leave him a
comment, please e-mail him at jfigueroa@universalhealthct.org.
During
the 2000 presidential election, Zulma Velez's name mysteriously
disappeared from the voter list in Florida. She was surprised and
startled. She had voted consistently in the past. But she was told that
she could not vote by provisional ballot either. Velez thought, "Que
pasa?" ("What's happening?")
Sound familiar? To Puerto Ricans in Florida like Zulma Velez it does.
In the 2000 election debacle, news stories focused on the
disenfranchisement of African American voters. What didn't make it onto
the airwaves was the widespread discrimination against Latino voters,
particularly Puerto Ricans living in central Florida.
This
bloc of voters is now almost as big as the Cuban American vote, and
it's working to make sure that history does not repeat itself. Given
how close this year's race seems, Puerto Ricans may influence who gets Florida's coveted 27 electoral votes.
Four years ago, a number of national civil rights organizations, including my former employer, the Puerto Rican
Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, investigated complaints
of discrimination and voter intimidation. Complaints ranged from
inappropriate requirements for several forms of identification to
harassment to people such as Velez disappearing from the voter lists.
The
results of those investigations can be found in a report published by
the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights titled "Voting Irregularities in
Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election." The evidence submitted
to the commission formed the basis for testimony presented by PRLDEF
and others to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Rules and Administration,
which eventually led to the passage of the 2002 Help America Vote Act,
co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Zulma Velez, who was among the Puerto Ricans
who had problems voting four years ago, recalled, "They were saying the
same thing [that they were not on the voting list] to other Puerto Ricans who showed up to vote that day. It was horrible."
She said there is still reason to be concerned. She is hoping to stop
scams meant to confuse Latino voters, such as this: Official-sounding
callers are instructing Latinos
to vote by phone or over the Internet -- options that don't exist.
Despite these troubling reports, Velez's confidence level is
understandably high. She is ready for this year's election.
As the state director of the Puerto Rican
Federal Affairs Administration's nonpartisan voter registration
campaign, Que Nada Nos Detenga (Let Nothing Stop Us), she is working to
make sure Latino voters are not denied their rights in this
election. The numbers and the intensity of PRFAA's voter-education
campaign promise to make a pivotal difference in this election.
The national campaign she heads in Florida has registered almost 60,000
new Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, bringing the Puerto Rican
total to an estimated 300,000 voters in the state. With a staff of 47,
scores of volunteers, billboards and a media blitz on Spanish-language
radio, she expects the Puerto Rican vote to be heavy in Florida.
There are now approximately 650,000 Puerto Ricans living in Florida,
second only to the Cuban population, estimated at 846,000. More than
half a million Puerto Ricans live in central Florida (Osceola, Orange
and Hillsboro and Polk counties).
PRFAA'S campaign has registered hundreds of thousands of Hispanic
Americans in other battleground states. "Our goal was not just to just
register numbers, but to engage people ... to really get them to
understand how to connect the dots and participate," said Celeste Diaz
Ferraro, a spokeswoman for PRFAA.
This
year's presidential election is extremely close. Like 2000, it may come
down to a handful of votes in Florida. If people like Zulma Velez can
properly cast their vote -- and not get harassed or intimidated --
Puerto Ricans may well help decide who wins this very close
presidential election.