Governor offers election pledge

By Bob Mahlburg
Tallahassee Bureau
Posted July 13 2004

Tallahassee · Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that the state would carry out an election that includes all eligible voters, despite problems such as the list of "potential felons" that the state scrapped Saturday.

"Any state effort will have a zero tolerance for disenfranchisement," he said. "That's the overall objective absolutely."

But civil-rights groups called Bush's comments a hollow pledge because they say the governor has refused to seek independent checks to ensure voting equipment works or to take any other concrete steps.

"The governor can't have it both ways and say he wants to reassure voters, and then out of the other side of his mouth dismiss every concern," said ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon. "He's got to take those concerns seriously."

While conceding the "potential felon" list wrongly excluded thousands of Hispanics, Bush on Monday insisted the list was not "in error" because it included people who got their voting rights back.

He also rejected concerns about touch-screen voting machines used in about a dozen counties, including Broward and Palm Beach. Bush said that the machines give voters three chances to vote and that he does not think they will count improperly.

Bush, chairman of the Florida re-election campaign for President Bush, said he scrapped the potential felon list partly because of legal threats.

"It was recommended to me by the secretary of state, and I think it was appropriate based on what would have been probably additional litigation," Bush said. "These are suing kind of folks to begin with, so they could have had a legal case in that regard, creating more uncertainty."

But Simon called Bush's comment a cop-out.

"This governor was responding to public embarrassment over ineptitude and the nationwide exposure," Simon said.

Bush again said he opposes changing Florida's status as one of only six states that won't automatically restore voting rights for felons.