# Are blacks being purged from the voting rolls, again? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 21, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307 "2004-05-21T03:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/21 "2004-05-22T19:30:52Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > As for the OP, I have no idea if it’s happening again. The cynic in me wouldn’t be surprised if it is. But if my name or the name of a loved one appears on any felony list, keeping us from voting in November, I will be so pissed that I may very well _committ_ a felony. Better still you should get a lawyer and sue your Supervisor of Elections for the injunctive relief of having your voting rights restored or confirmed. Which takes time, so you had better check, several months before the election, to make sure your registration is still valid. And anybody who has the least bit of doubt about their voting eligibility should do the same. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/22 "2004-05-22T20:38:20Z")
The racial makeup of the general population of Florida is not material to this discussion. The “population” that matters is convicted felons, since all of those banned were alleged to be convicted felons. If the population of convicted felons was 80% white and those banned from voting were 50% black, you could make a case for racial discrimination. If the racial breakdown of the population of convicted felons is close to 50/50, it would indicate no racial discrimination in the banning process. Should convicted felons be banned from voting? is another question entirely. If the claimed 90% error rate is correct, then that’s dismal and needs to be improved, but it’s still a different question. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/23 "2004-05-23T04:27:40Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > Should convicted felons be banned from voting? is another question entirely. > If the claimed 90% error rate is correct, then that’s dismal and needs to be improved, but it’s still a different question. You guys ought to read up on what Pallast wrote. There is a lot more to this story than massive incompetence. There is also extremely excessive payments given to the private company for what they did, and ignoring the company’s own advice that the records needed to be checked not simply used as is. It is almost as if some people did their best to insure the records were inaccurate…erring on the side of disqualifying many more voters than were actually felons. > [@](#): > > If the population of convicted felons was 80% white and those banned from voting were 50% black, you could make a case for racial discrimination. If the racial breakdown of the population of convicted felons is close to 50/50, it would indicate no racial discrimination in the banning process. But, the point is that most of those banned were not actually convicted felons. So, the net effect was that many more blacks were banned, relative to their percentage of the population, than whites. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/24 "2004-05-23T04:35:30Z")
[Here](http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010205&c=1&s=palast) is an earlier article by Palast with more details about the Florida case. The full story is quite long and involved and is documented in a chapter in his book, “The Best Democracy that Money can Buy”. You can read that whole chapter [here](http://www.gregpalast.com/contents.htm) (it’s chapter 1). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/25 "2004-05-23T14:27:28Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Dude, your understanding of basic math (or lack thereof) is embarrassing. Blacks + Hispanics comprise, roughly, 31% of the Florida population. Whites are 78% of the population. Their representation on the wrongly stricken list is disproportionate to their representation in the general population. If majority and minority representations were ROUGHLY EQUAL, you’d expect consistent proportions. So it DOES matter! > > Got it? > > It’s troubling that anyone was wrongly kept from doing their civic duty. But it’s especially troubling that specific groups appear to be especially vunerable to this error. We’re talking about politics…where race matters. Florida is in the South, a region that has a bad legacy of barring groups from the polls. This is reminiscent of that, and it’s scary. Anyone who can’t see that has their head in the sand. > > As for the OP, I have no idea if it’s happening again. The cynic in me wouldn’t be surprised if it is. But if my name or the name of a loved one appears on any felony list, keeping us from voting in November, I will be so pissed that I may very well _committ_ a felony. Got crime statistics? What are the proportions of B/H felons to white felons? Does that exact same proportion carry over??? Are there proportionally MORE or LESS B/H felons to white felons??? And perhaps if a friend or loved one appears on a felony list, they did actually commit a crime…I happen to have a cousin that robbed a convenience store when he was young. I have a very good friend whos brother was in the slammer for bigamy…I directly know a couple of felons from when I was dating a lawyer. Personally, I tend to be pretty colorblind. I am more concerned with the false positives on the list than I will ever be about color. And again - NOT EVERY WHITE IN THIS COUNTRY GOVES A DAMN ABOUT WHAT COLOR ANYBODY IS AND DONT GIVE A CRAP ABOUT WANTING TO OPRESS ANYBODY. SOME OF UD **do** GIVE A DAMN ABOUT SLOPPY WORK SCREWING WITH YOUR FRANCHISE. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/26 "2004-05-23T14:30:05Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > The racial makeup of the general population of Florida is not material to this discussion. > > The “population” that matters is convicted felons, since all of those banned were alleged to be convicted felons. > > If the population of convicted felons was 80% white and those banned from voting were 50% black, you could make a case for racial discrimination. If the racial breakdown of the population of convicted felons is close to 50/50, it would indicate no racial discrimination in the banning process. > > Should convicted felons be banned from voting? is another question entirely. > If the claimed 90% error rate is correct, then that’s dismal and needs to be improved, but it’s still a different question. THANK YOU. As I have been trying to get across, it isnt the color of the people, it is the sloppiness of the work. My take on felonage, do the crime, do the time. Theoretically once you have done your time, your rights should be returned to you since you have ‘cleaned the slate’ I do think they should be allowed to vote as theoretically they are restored to their rights… ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/27 "2004-05-23T15:05:49Z")
Check out [Greg Palast](http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=122&row=1) for the whole story. He mentions that the reason behind the purge was that **all** convicted felons vote 90% Democrat, not just blacks. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/28 "2004-05-24T01:38:28Z")
Ok, I’ve read the articles at the different Palast sites, except for the book’s chapter. If he’s correct about the inaccuracy in the system in past years, this surely needs to be corrected. My entire life I’ve heard that if a person gets a dishonorable discharge from military service or is convicted of a felony, voting privileges are forfeited. I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I don’t think those in the above categories deserve the right to vote. But that’s my opinion. If it’s now the law, then let’s hope they get the system straightened out so that there is an accurate purging of voter lists, not an erroneous one. I don’t know about Florida. Here we have poll watchers whose job is to examine ballots and determine which, if any, are spoiled. These watchers work in pairs, one from each major party. I don’t think a scam could be conducted under these circumstances. Question: How does Palast know whose ballot, specifically, was discounted? If ballots could be tied back to individual voters, there would be no “secret ballot”. If ballots can’t be traced to a specific individual, how can the race of the person whose ballot was dis-allowed be determined? ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/29 "2004-05-24T03:20:38Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > Question: How does Palast know whose ballot, specifically, was discounted? If ballots could be tied back to individual voters, there would be no “secret ballot”. If ballots can’t be traced to a specific individual, how can the race of the person whose ballot was dis-allowed be determined? It’s not a matter of their ballots not being counted…They are not allowed to vote in the first place. You know, when you go in and they check your name against the names of legally registered voters. Some people were purged from the legally registered voters list. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/30 "2004-05-24T06:01:05Z")
**JCM:** \*My entire life I’ve heard that if a person gets a dishonorable discharge from military service or is convicted of a felony, voting privileges are forfeited. \* You haven’t heard quite right. It depends on [which state you’re voting in:](http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031124&s=perl&c=1) > [@](#): > > Voting rights are left up to the states, so the laws vary. Only Maine and Vermont allow prisoners to vote. Most states take the right away from those in prison and also those on parole or probation. While most states also return the right to vote once the terms of a sentence have been completed, thirteen states, five of them in the South, take voting rights away for life–a punishment extremely rare in the rest of the Western world. [According to [this article](http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/14/rapoport-m.html), though, there are only eight states that disenfranchise felons permanently.] **JCM:** \*I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I don’t think those in the above categories deserve the right to vote. \* I’m neutral about denying the franchise to current felons, but I definitely think that ex-felons should be reinstated as voters (as is indeed the policy in most states). Once convicts have “paid their debt to society” by doing their time, it seems to me useless, if not counterproductive, to continue to punish them by denying them full participation as citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/31 "2004-05-24T07:35:40Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Sorry for posting while tired…my math goes to hell in a handbasket when I am tired. > > Dude, does it even matter? ROUGHLY EQUAL numbers of black and hispanic to white were stricken. How about the more important problem that they fucked up 90% of the records…I will say it again NINETY PERCENT were not prior felons/disqualifiable due to what ever reasons. > > Come on, who cares what color you are if you get stricken for no cause. How about actually focusing on something other than color like gross imcompetency? I seriously doubt that there is any deep inner racial issue to this. I do see a competency issue. No, it was not mere incompetence. Palast has described what happened.\* Shortly before the 2000 election, Katherine Harris fired the company that was charging $5,700 to come up with a list of people to scrub from the voter rolls as ineligible to vote due to felonly convictions. She then hired the Database Technologies division of Choicepoint to do the scrub – for $2.3 million! Why were Florida officials willing to pay Choicepoint so much more than the other company would charge for the same job? I don’t see any explanation other than that the inflated fee was for doing exactly what they did: illegitimately disenfranchize thousands of people deemed likely to vote Democratic. \*See his website: [http://www/gregpalast.ocm/](http://www/gregpalast.ocm/) ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/32 "2004-05-24T07:37:48Z")
Oops, sorry! [http://www.gregpalast.com/](http://www.gregpalast.com/) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/33 "2004-05-24T11:39:22Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > It’s not a matter of their ballots not being counted…They are not allowed to vote in the first place. You know, when you go in and they check your name against the names of legally registered voters. Some people were purged from the legally registered voters list. I understand that, as concerns the purging of alleged felons. I should have been more clear: In one of Palast’s articles he goes into detail and quotes numbers, about the disproportionate number of black persons whose ballots were deemed to be spoiled. Gotta’ get to work and it seems the hamsters are fatigued, so I don’t have time to check back and link to the specific story. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/34 "2004-05-24T12:11:18Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Check out [Greg Palast](http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=122&row=1) for the whole story. He mentions that the reason behind the purge was that **all** convicted felons vote 90% Democrat, not just blacks. Ah yes. A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. And a liberal is a conservative who’s been arrested. And, apparently, convicted. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/35 "2004-05-24T15:15:15Z")
Are the tinfoil hats a safety hazard during thunderstorms? This strikes me as liberal conspiracy theory wishful thinking. Does anyone really believe that something of this magnitude could be pulled off without the cooperation and silence of a great many people? I can see them all now…rubbing their hands together and saying “BWA HA HA HA! Let’s disenfranchise minorities to further our evil agenda!” ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/36 "2004-05-24T15:32:22Z")
by **aruvgan** > [@](#): > > THANK YOU. As I have been trying to get across, it isnt the color of the people, it is the sloppiness of the work. So when you say “sloppiness” I’m assuming you blame a 90% failure rate on incompetency and not on malicious ulterior motives. Perhaps if the percentage in error was 10-15%, I’d be more inclined to agree. But _90%_? Believing this was the product of sloppiness is the product of sloppy thinking. > [@](#): > > What are the proportions of B/H felons to white felons? Does that exact same proportion carry over??? Are there proportionally MORE or LESS B/H felons to white felons??? Sorry, this is irrelevant. If it has been shown that 90% of the people whose votes were tossed were NOT felons, how do crime statistics figure into the equation? If anything, the unfortunate fact that there is a disproportionate number of blacks/Hispanics in prison is one that can be taken advantage of by those who seek to eliminate Democratic votes without raising a lot of questions. All you have to do is screen out of a big chunk of the black/Hispanic voters, put their ballots in the reject pile, and when someone dares to question you on it, simply say that all the ballots belong to felons. Few people will think twice about that explanation because, afterall, most blacks have done hard prison time, right? I mean, look at those statistics!!! > [@](#): > > And perhaps if a friend or loved one appears on a felony list, they did actually commit a crime… If it’s 9 out of 10 chances that a person on the list is NOT a felon, perhaps you should strive to put less weight on that “perhaps”. “Occasionally” may be a better fit. > [@](#): > > Personally, I tend to be pretty colorblind. I am more concerned with the false positives on the list than I will ever be about color. I know it is en vogue and all to be colorblind, but when there is evidence that race is being used in a devious manner, being colorblind is willfully refusing to see truth. Perhaps you don’t have to think about color because you don’t feel affected by race. Kudos, you are one lucky human being. But you are not thinking critically or objectively if you think race is irrelevant in this. > [@](#): > > And again - NOT EVERY WHITE IN THIS COUNTRY GOVES A DAMN ABOUT WHAT COLOR ANYBODY IS AND DONT GIVE A CRAP ABOUT WANTING TO OPRESS ANYBODY. SOME OF UD **do** GIVE A DAMN ABOUT SLOPPY WORK SCREWING WITH YOUR FRANCHISE. Calm down. Does the subject of race touch a raw nerve? Who said anything about every white trying to oppress anyone? Get a grip on reality. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/37 "2004-05-25T00:31:45Z")
> [@Evil One](#): > > Are the tinfoil hats a safety hazard during thunderstorms? > > This strikes me as liberal conspiracy theory wishful thinking. Does anyone really believe that something of this magnitude could be pulled off without the cooperation and silence of a great many people? > > I can see them all now…rubbing their hands together and saying “BWA HA HA HA! Let’s disenfranchise minorities to further our evil agenda!” Wishful thinking? No liberal I know actually **wants** this stuff to happen. As for “silence and cooperation” In 2000, the Secretary of State’s office simply hired the desired company to compile the lists of “felons” and then proceeded to carry out the purge, on its own authority, without publicizing what they were doing. And in 2002 the Republican-controlled Congress simply enacted HAVA, all a matter of public record, providing in part (from [http://www.fec.gov/hava/hava.htm](http://www.fec.gov/hava/hava.htm)): > [@](#): > > SEC. 303. \<\\> COMPUTERIZED STATEWIDE VOTER > REGISTRATION LIST REQUIREMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR VOTERS > WHO REGISTER BY MAIL. > > ``` > (a) Computerized Statewide Voter Registration List Requirements.-- > (1) Implementation.-- > (A) In general.--Except as provided in subparagraph > (B), each State, acting through the chief State election > official, shall implement, in a uniform and > nondiscriminatory manner, a single, uniform, official, > centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter > registration list defined, maintained, and administered > at the State level that contains the name and > registration information of every legally registered > voter in the State and assigns a unique identifier to > each legally registered voter in the State (in this > subsection referred to as the ``computerized list''), > and includes the following: > (i) The computerized list shall serve as the > single system for storing and managing the > official list of registered voters throughout the > State. > (ii) The computerized list contains the name > and registration information of every legally > registered voter in the State. > (iii) Under the computerized list, a unique > identifier is assigned to each legally registered > voter in the State. > (iv) The computerized list shall be > coordinated with other agency databases within the > State. > (v) Any election official in the State, > including any local election official, may obtain > immediate electronic access to the information > contained in the computerized list. > (vi) All voter registration information > obtained by any local election official in the > State shall be electronically entered into the > computerized list on an expedited basis at the > time the information is provided to the local > official. > (vii) The chief State election official shall > provide such support as may be required so that > local election > > ``` > > [[Page 116 STAT. 1709]] > > ``` > officials are able to enter information as > described in clause (vi). > (viii) The computerized list shall serve as > the official voter registration list for the > conduct of all elections for Federal office in the > State. > (B) Exception.--The requirement under subparagraph > (A) shall not apply to a State in which, under a State > law in effect continuously on and after the date of the > enactment of this Act, there is no voter registration > requirement for individuals in the State with respect to > elections for Federal office. > (2) Computerized list maintenance.-- > (A) In general.--The appropriate State or local > election official shall perform list maintenance with > respect to the computerized list on a regular basis as > follows: > **(i) If an individual is to be removed from the > computerized list, such individual shall be > removed in accordance with the provisions of the > National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. > 1973gg et seq.), including subsections (a)(4), > (c)(2), (d), and (e) of section 8 of such Act (42 > U.S.C. 1973gg-6).** > (ii) For purposes of removing names of > ineligible voters from the official list of > eligible voters-- > **) under section 8(a)(3)(B) of such > Act (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-6(a)(3)(B)), the > State shall coordinate the computerized > list with State agency records on felony > status;** > (II) by reason of the death of the > registrant under section 8(a)(4)(A) of > such Act (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-6(a)(4)(A)), > the State shall coordinate the > computerized list with State agency > records on death. > (iii) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions > of this subparagraph, if a State is described in > section 4(b) of the National Voter Registration > Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-2(b)), that State > shall remove the names of ineligible voters from > the computerized list in accordance with State > law. > (B) Conduct.--The list maintenance performed under > subparagraph (A) shall be conducted in a manner that > ensures that-- > (i) the name of each registered voter appears > in the computerized list; > (ii) only voters who are not registered or who > are not eligible to vote are removed from the > computerized list; and > (iii) duplicate names are eliminated from the > computerized list. > (3) Technological security of computerized list.--The > appropriate State or local official shall provide adequate > technological security measures to prevent the unauthorized > access to the computerized list established under this section. > (4) Minimum standard for accuracy of state voter > registration records.--The State election system shall include > provisions to ensure that voter registration records in the > State are accurate and are updated regularly, including the > following: > > ``` > > [[Page 116 STAT. 1710]] > > ``` > ** A system of file maintenance that makes a > reasonable effort to remove registrants who are > ineligible to vote from the official list of eligible > voters.** Under such system, consistent with the National > Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg et > seq.), registrants who have not responded to a notice > and who have not voted in 2 consecutive general > elections for Federal office shall be removed from the > official list of eligible voters, except that no > registrant may be removed solely by reason of a failure > to vote. > (B) Safeguards to ensure that eligible voters are > not removed in error from the official list of eligible > voters. > > ``` The referenced section of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the “Motor-Voter Bill”) provides simply: > [@](#): > > Sec. 1973gg-6 Requirements with respect to administration of voter registration > (a) In general > > In the administration of voter registration for elections for Federal office, each State shall - > > * * * > > (3) provide that the name of a registrant may not be removed from the official list of eligible voters except - > > (A) at the request of the registrant; > > (B) **as provided by State law, by reason of criminal conviction** or mental incapacity; So the question is, when you put all this legal verbiage together, does it or does it not do what Palast says it does? > [@](#): > > First, the purges. In the months leading up to the November 2000 presidential election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush, ordered local election supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from the registries, supposedly ex-cons not allowed to vote in Florida. At least 90.2 percent of those on this “scrub” list, targeted to lose their civil rights, are innocent. Notably, more than half–about 54 percent–are black or Hispanic. You can argue all night about the number ultimately purged, but there’s no argument that this electoral racial pogrom ordered by Jeb Bush’s operatives gave the White House to his older brother. HAVA not only blesses such purges, it requires all fifty states to implement a similar search-and-destroy mission against vulnerable voters. Specifically, every state must, by the 2004 election, imitate Florida’s system of computerizing voter files. The law then empowers fifty secretaries of state–fifty Katherine Harrises–to purge these lists of “suspect” voters. I suggest the language quoted above **could** be applied to do what Palast is describing. But until HAVA is actually implemented, its effects on the voting rolls are hidden in plain sight, as it were. Now, regarding the other half of Palast’s story, I must admit I wonder how it could be kept a secret if local election authorities were in some kind of conspiracy to disfranchise blacks by rejecting their ballots as “spoiled.” (If there is a real problem with spoiled ballots, we might hope the new touchscreen system will eliminate it.) On the other hand, we had a recent GD thread – “Local election boards discourage students from voting” ([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257342](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257342)) – and nobody suggested that was tinfoil hat territory. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307/38 "2004-05-25T20:13:20Z")
> [@Evil One](#): > > Are the tinfoil hats a safety hazard during thunderstorms? > > This strikes me as liberal conspiracy theory wishful thinking… > > I can see them all now…rubbing their hands together and saying “BWA HA HA HA! Let’s disenfranchise minorities to further our evil agenda!” Have you actually read the book, or the links supplied above? This is not rumour or conjecture that this happened, Palast has the scrub list and has testimony from elections officials and employees of the database company as to the checks that were (or more to the point weren’t done). Palast’s entire point is _not_ that this was planned from the start as some great conspiracy, but rather that nothing was done by Kathryn Harris when it became obvious that a large number of people would be disenfranchised by what was being done and that, statistically speaking, that group would contain a hugely dispropotionate number of democrat voters. From the book: > [@](#): > > I now began to understand the brilliant deviltry of the purge. It did not matter if, on Day One of the purge process, > Republicans had some grand plan, some elaborate conspiracy, > to eliminate the vote of African-American innocents. Rather, > document after document suggested that, once the operatives saw the demographics of the raw lists – tens of thousands of > names of mostly Democratic voters – they moved heaven and > earth to prevent its reduction. A list of 57,000 voters, mostly > Black, erased with the flick of a switch was just fine with Mr. > Roberts and crew. Make verification phone calls? Have statisticians > check the findings? Correct the methods? Why, that > would only cut the list . . . by 90 percent at least. Why should > a Republican administration pay for that? > It’s not “conspiracy,” but opportunism. > [@](#): > > Does anyone really believe that something of this magnitude could be pulled off without the cooperation and silence of a great many people? Including yourself, by the sounds of it, and the US media, who were more concerned with the mechanics of hanging chads at the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blacks-being-purged-from-the-voting-rolls-again/246307.md?page=1)