Openness that counts
Our position: Releasing the list of potential felons should lead to a fairer election.

Posted July 6, 2004

The world didn't end after a Tallahassee judge forced state elections officials to make public nearly 48,000 potential felons who could be eliminated from voter rolls.

Quite the contrary. The publicity, in fact, may have prevented confusion and embarrassment at polling places on Election Day while saving county elections supervisors a bundle of money and a boatload of time.

For weeks, elections supervisors fretted aloud that a state list of suspected felons who are ineligible to vote might be inaccurate. But they didn't want to "embarrass" anyone by sending out required notices to those named on the list, which the state Division of Elections refused to make public.

How, then, could anyone know whether his or her name was included erroneously on the list?

Fortunately, Leon County Circuit Judge Nikki Clark recently agreed with news organizations that the list should be made public. Now everyone has an opportunity to set the record straight well in advance of the Aug. 31 primary.

Numerous Web sites, including orlandosentinel.com and the People for the American Way Foundation Web site at www.pfaw.org/go/purge, have posted the list online. Local elections officials still must notify everyone on the list and handle appeals. But now that the list is public, the supervisors have no reason to be gun-shy. Voters erroneously included on the list can know in an instant.

A democracy depends on open and fair elections. And no one should be wrongly denied the opportunity to participate.