List abandoned, but doubts linger

Gov. Jeb Bush gets points for scrapping the controversial felon-purge list, but questions about Florida's readiness for the 2004 election linger.

BY LESLEY CLARK

lclark@herald.com

Four years after earning the moniker Flori-duh, the state is again risking becoming a late-night talk show one-liner for mismanaging a presidential election.

Once again, there is turmoil over a list of who is eligible to vote, and the voting machines themselves in some of the state's biggest counties are under question: The touchs-creen machines touted as a space-age solution to the 1960s-era punch-card dinosaurs are proving to be a colossal headache.

Sensing a mounting public relations disaster less then four months before what could be another squeaker of a presidential election, state officials Saturday yanked the controversial ''felon-purge'' voter list. It was a concession to the critics who barraged the administration with complaints and data showing that the list was riddled with errors this despite Gov. Jeb Bush's vow that the state, after the 2000 debacle, would become a model of election reform for the nation.

The decision to scrap the list, endorsed by Bush, was a deft public relations move by a politician keenly attuned to staying on message and telling all who will listen that he inherited most of the state's voting problems from previous administrations.

But scrapping the list is unlikely to quell critics of the Republican governor.

TROUBLE ARISES

The controversy started to blaze out of Bush's control when The Herald reported that more than 2,100 people remained on the list of potentially ineligible voters despite having won clemency the right to vote after serving their sentences. Many of them were black part of the Democratic base that mobilized against George W. Bush's candidacy in 2000 and nearly cost him the presidential election.

Then the discovery this week that Hispanics who in Florida lean Republican weren't on the felon purge list sent Bush critics and conspiracy theorists into overdrive, considering that the list was prepared by a Republican administration that went to court to block the public's right to review it.

For Bush critics, it all sounded eerily similar to the events of 2000, in which thousands of blacks complained of being denied the right to vote in the state that delivered the White House to the governor's brother by just 537 votes.

''The actions of the state have been either inept or nefarious,'' said Ralph Neas, president of People For the American Way, which challenged the state's similarly flawed purge list in 2000.

The decision to the controversial list, following the disclosure of the Hispanic omission Saturday in The New York Times, was said to be that of Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Bush appointee. And Bush quickly said that he agreed.

''It was the right thing to do,'' Bush said Saturday in Miami. ``The perception of all this begins to become reality. . . .''

The governor chalked up the swirl of conspiracy theories to the ''political process'' and to Democrats' hopes of turning out voters ``for their own cause.''

He said the omission of Hispanics was simply an ``oversight and a mistake.''

Perception for Bush threatened to become a reality: As the chairman of his brother's reelection campaign in Florida, he's been on a mission to tout what he says have been the benefits to Florida of his brother's presidency. Saturday morning at a downtown Fort Lauderdale hotel he extolled the president's policies on education and home-ownership to a black audience.

NATIONAL EXPOSURE

But newspapers have continued to focus on the voting mishaps, and the story went national on Saturday with the New York Times piece.

Civil rights groups said the state led by the self-proclaimed ''e-governor'' has routinely failed to deliver an accurate felon-purge list and predicted that more stories about mistakes would emerge.

Bush, though, defended the state's election readiness to reporters, noting that Florida has spent $30 million on voter education programs and millions more on new voting machines.

''We're in much better shape today as it relates to this state dealing with a close election,'' he said.

Democrats said the governor did the right thing in killing the list but added that he must go further.

''It's not enough just to scrap the list,'' said Tony Welch, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. ``This is a red flag for Gov. Bush and the Legislature to review the entire elections process because Florida does not need another debacle on Election Day 2004. That would be inexcusable.''