Questions over felon 'purge list' threaten Bush

The ghosts of the 2000 elections could haunt Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, after a Herald analysis found potential flaws in a voter 'purge' list.

BY MARC CAPUTO

mcaputo@herald.com

TALLAHASSEE - As thousands of Floridians learn that a state list could wrongly bar them from voting, Democrats have found a rallying point for the November elections and proof, they say, of long-held suspicions that Gov. Jeb Bush's elections machinery is rigged against them.

More than 2,100 people, many of them black Democrats, remain on the list of potentially ineligible ex-con voters despite winning clemency and the right to vote after their crimes, The Herald reported Friday.

Democrats and activists call it a ''purge list'' a phrase that deeply irks the governor.

That phrase, and the sinister plot it suggests, is rapidly becoming an article of faith among some Democrats, already fired up by the sensational Fahrenheit 9/11 conspiracy film that begins with Florida's voting woes four years ago.

''They had four years to fix this, and apparently they're asleep at the switch. It's either the most egregious neglect, or something else at play here,'' said Tony Welch, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. ``News flash to Jeb Bush: It's your job. If there's one responsibility this time around, it's to make sure it all goes smoothly.''

Unlike in 2000, when tens of thousands of blacks and Democrats were likely prohibited from voting, The Herald's analysis of the list's potential flaws has surfaced long before the November elections, giving activists the chance to object and, perhaps, to sue.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it will file a challenge in federal court to have the names of voters with clemency removed from the state's database.

''If the state insists on continuing to throw up these bureaucratic obstacles for no material reason, then we will file a suit under federal law to have those names removed,'' said Randall Marshall, legal director of the ACLU of Florida.

More than a third of those from South Florida who are on the state's list despite receiving clemency voted in the 2000 presidential election, a Herald analysis found.

Bush wouldn't comment when The Herald story was published Friday. He hustled away from the spotlight at a public event, not to be seen again by the news media.

A spokeswoman for Bush's secretary of state, Glenda Hood, issued a public statement decrying the accuracy of the Herald story, but provided few specifics and wouldn't return calls.

On Thursday, when a Tallahassee judge demanded that Bush's administration release the list, the governor said he wouldn't fight the ruling. Bush said he was happy the judge commended his administration for following the now-unconstitutional law which he signed that kept the list from the public.

Bush didn't want to discuss the high number of blacks and Democrats on the list.

''I haven't done the analysis,'' Bush said. ``It doesn't matter to me.''

It matters to black lawmakers, however. Among them is Bush-critic-in-chief Kendrick Meek, a Miami congressman who led a sit-in protest in Bush's office after the governor ended some aspects of affirmative action.

''If the state of Florida cannot manage to identify which felons they have restored voting rights to and which they have not, then the governor should step to the plate, and end this racially biased program of disenfranchisement, an act he could do by executive order,'' Meek said in a written statement.

Meek was a force behind the ''arrive with five'' movement that brought an historical number of blacks to the polls in 2000.

Incoming state House Minority Leader Chris Smith, of Fort Lauderdale, said the analysis of the new data will help Democrats recruit voters and remind them that they just need about 600 more votes to count this year.

`THEY STOLE THIS'

''They stole this in 2000. We've now got proof of what we've been saying for a while. The list is rigged. It's rigged against certain communities,'' said Smith, who represents the African-American core of central Fort Lauderdale.

There, in the 33311 ZIP Code, The Herald found the highest concentration in the state of voters who had their rights restored but are on the state's list. About 50 of them are on the list.

''The darkest part of the most Democratic county has the most people disenfranchised,'' Smith said. ``Gee, surprise, surprise.''

His constituent, Jeffery Rogers, isn't shocked.

''It's real sneaky,'' said Rogers, 37, who was convicted in 1988 of cocaine possession and received clemency for the crime in 1989. ``You think it's a mistake? The world is so crooked, so nothing surprises me. The bad thing is, they get away with it.''

Bush said last week there's nothing sinister with the law barring felons from voting, which is a vestige of past administrations. He points out he has restored rights for more people than any of his predecessors. Still, he said, he's not going to grant across-the-board clemency.

''Some people believe that felons should have the right to vote. I don't. So I'm not in discomfort with this law. And we will carry it out,'' Bush said.

To underscore his efforts in ''reaching out'' Bush pointed to a settlement with the NAACP, which sued the state over its felons list. The state agreed to quickly reinstate the voting rights of those convicted of felonies in other states that don't require a clemency process. It also agreed to clean up its database that caused so much controversy in 2000.

MAIN COMPLAINT

The secretary of state's office cited its work with the NAACP in a Friday press release that questioned The Herald story's accuracy. The main complaint: 1,647 of the 2,119 people found by The Herald had registered to vote before getting their rights restored, and therefore have to re-register.

A lead attorney in the NAACP lawsuit, Elliot Mincberg, said that was ''bureaucratic, nitpicking.'' He also said that, contrary to the Bush administration's claims, it has been dragging its feet in clearing people from what he calls the ''purge'' list.

Bush said he expected criticism of his administration, and said it disappointed him.

''There are cynics out there that view people in public life to be motivated by something they're not,'' he said.

``And sadly I think it's motivated by what they read in the papers sometimes and that's disturbing. What I can tell you is the truth that we adhere to the law. And we are carrying out the law. And that is exactly what we're doing.''