Florida2002.org
Restore Democracy in Florida

November 12, 2002

In Palm Beach County, a step forward

I met a man last Tuesday evening who had tried to vote early that day, but was turned away for lacking paperwork. He drove his produce truck to the polls a second time at lunch, but was again turned away by a poll worker who, for whatever reason, remained skeptical. When I met him at dusk it was his third attempt to vote at Precinct 7030. He was accompanied by his wife and a number - I think six - of small children.

Inside the Riviera Beach Church of Christ, long lines of voters were impatient for their turn in front of the new touch screens that have replaced the dishonored punch cards of elections past. Outside, a circus atmosphere quickly grew around Donnie Gaskins as he tried to cast his vote. Members of a voting rights organization called frantically to get one of their lawyers on the scene. A reporter from the local newspaper urged Gaskins to wait until a photographer arrived to chronicle (or rather Post) the moment. And Donnie did wait, not so much uncomfortable in the spotlight as oblique to it. He was there to vote, not to fight, not to get his name in the paper nor to be the rallying point for this or any other editorial. On his third visit to the polls, after waiting 30 minutes for the lawyers and photographers, then another 45 minutes in a crowded, boisterous, and sometimes frustrated queue, Donnie Gaskins voted. His kids saw him do it.

Over the next two years many of us will be depressed by economic policies which we find perverse, and a foreign policy which we find belligerent. The temptation will be to withdraw from the civic sphere, to bury one's self in work and family, to skip the news and go straight to the sports, to not look beyond the concentric spheres of self and family and neighborhood to the broader ones of state, country, and people. The temptation, when one speaks and is not heard, is to stop speaking; the tendency, when one tries and fails, is to stop trying.

But consider Donnie Gaskins and the fact that he made three trips to the polls, the fact that he quietly stood firm in the face of the insult that told him, wrongly, that he did not have the right to be there. Consider Donnie's neighbors in precinct 7030. Over a thousand of them came out on Tuesday, negotiating roads that are unfairly beat-up and a polling place that was uncomfortably overcrowded, all for the right to vote. Their candidate for governor lost Tuesday night: Precinct 7030 went for Democrat Bill McBride over the statewide winner Jeb Bush by a margin of 97% to 2%.

To vote is to aspire to make America better. Each vote taken away, each disenfranchised voice, gives us one less hope. Two years ago, the voices of people in precincts like 7030 were silenced and the will of the people was ignored. This time, the votes were counted.

In too many respects our democracy remains incomplete, and there are still too many hurdles in the way of both universal suffrage and equal representation. Even with over a thousand voters, the percentage of those who voted in Precinct 7030 was lower than that in the whiter, more affluent, and more Republican neighborhoods nearby.

But after the travesty of the 2000 Presidential election, the midterm elections of 2002 should be seen as a step in the right direction. Thanks to the persistent hopes of Donnie Gaskins and those like him, America is moving forward again.

November 5, 2002

Grading the state

Although our kids may still be in 'D' and 'F' schools, the electoral system in our state is in better shape. A little. With last year's passage of the Florida Election Reform Act, Florida is no longer failing in its aspirations towards democracy. According to the grassroots organization Common Cause, the state has moved from an 'F' to a 'C' in the fairness of its electoral system.

As any parent of a child in a C school will tell you, things could be better. Some of us will not be able to vote today because we failed to register a month before the election - Florida still lacks the right to same-day registration that prevails in, for example, conservative Wyoming and more liberal Minnesota. Some will be prevented from voting because of past crimes - Florida is the largest state in the country that continues to prevent most ex-felons from voting, and has the highest rate in the nation of this type of disenfranchisement. Some will be effectively prevented from voting by lines that are too long and polling hours that are too short - perhaps especially in Broward, where the Governor rejected the county's request for extended hours to accommodate the anticipated demand. And some will be questioned at the polls out of simple error. In the 2000 presidential election, the list of alleged felons had an error rate of approximately 14%. Even if the error rate is sliced in half, some of us will be looked at askance, with unearned mistrust, when we go to vote on Tuesday. This is, of course, a risk that some of us face more than others: If today's election is like that of two years ago, then I in my White skin will be unlikely to be questioned on Tuesday, but you in your Black or Brown or Olive skin may be.

But as any struggling student will tell you, a 'C' is better than an 'F.' The widespread disenfranchisement of 2000 will not be repeated today, and the flaws in the system should be both more color-blind and less consequential. The Florida Election Reform Act is a step forward, not because of our glitzy touch screens, but because it specifies that we can no longer be denied the right to vote by bureaucratic ineptitude. If you go to the polls today and are told that your name does not appear on the rolls, or if you are mistakenly identified as an ex-felon, you now have the right to a provisional ballot. One little-publicized sections of the law may effect you: Section 36 specifies that if you've moved across the county you may cast a (provisional) ballot at your new precinct, even if you haven't yet filed a change of address form with the supervisor of elections. This accommodation does not, unfortunately, apply to individuals who have moved across county lines.

Why vote?

To vote is to aspire to make this a better place.

It's our state, it's our country, and it's our government. The election is important, the differences between the candidates are stark, and Florida's complex demography and diversity insure that many contests will be close. But if we vote, and our votes are counted fairly we will all win. If we fail to vote out of complacency, if we stay away from the polls because of skepticism, if we give in to the imperfections of our incomplete democracy then we lose. Make democracy work, and help us recover from our stumble of two years ago. Vote today. Even if you have to wait an hour in line, if you feel a fraction of the pride that I will in casting my ballot, it will be worth the wait.

Make every vote count. Help us work towards

• developing a pro-democracy legislative agenda at the state and federal level,
• working to ensure that this legislation will become law, and
• electing pro-democracy candidates in the 2002 elections.

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