- Archives

State party officials consider using the list to challenge felons who attempt to vote Tuesday.

Florida's Republican Party has revived a felon purge list so flawed that state election officials were forced to scrap it in July. Party officials revealed Thursday that they may pick up where the state left off, using their power on Election Day to challenge individual voters whose names appear on the list. The original purge list, created by the Florida Department of State, was dropped because a data glitch excluded Hispanics, who tend to vote Republican, while including thousands of blacks, who more often vote Democratic. If Republicans use the list to challenge felons who attempt to vote, that could cost the Democrats thousands of votes and might decide the election, which is expected to be close. In 2000, George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes. The GOP has not decided if it will use the list on Tuesday, said Mindy Tucker Fletcher, senior adviser to the Republican Party of Florida. Tucker concedes that the Republicans' purge list contains the same flaws that led the state to scrap its version. The list of 14,000 voters includes only 19 Hispanics. They were excluded by a "flaw" in the way the state's original data were formed.

Before the Republicans revealed that they were reviving the purge list, Gov. Bush told the St. Petersburg Times Wednesday that it was proper for poll watchers to challenge the eligibility of voters on Election Day. "I don't think it will cause problems," Bush said. "I do think that people who are not eligible to vote shouldn't and the people who are should." Democrats called the revival of the list an abuse of the election system that will disproportionately disenfranchise Blacks. [more]
BBC report sparks Florida vote storm [more]
Florida's computers have already counted thousands of votes for George W. Bush [more]
State warns poll watchers [more]
Where is the Fruit of Islam (FOI)? The Democratic Party should have hired these guys to ensure orderly conditions on election day. IF some FREAK Republican steps to me while I am voting I will leave 'em butt naked hanging from a tree.