NAACP Dispatches Voter Rapid Response Team to Florida; Lawyers and Election Observers to Oversee Primary Election

8/24/2004 9:24:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: NAACP Office of Communications, 410-580-5125; Web: http://www.naacp.org

BALTIMORE, Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is dispatching a team of lawyers and election workers to observe the Florida primary election and to assist voters who may have problems attempting to cast their ballots on August 31.

Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, NAACP, said, the voter rapid response team is going to Florida following reports of possible harassment of black elderly voters in the Orlando area of Orange County and because of recent attempts by state officials to illegally purge over 2,000 legally registered voters.

"The NAACP will not allow another 2000 voter fiasco to occur," said Mfume. "We will have observers and lawyers on the ground to assist voters and to make sure they are not intimidated. Our goal is to see that all eligible voters register and vote, and that every vote is counted."

Mfume has also demanded that objective Justice Department election monitors, not affiliated with either major political party, observe the Florida primary.

During the 2000 presidential election, some Florida voters reported to the NAACP they were harassed on Election Day by a Florida Highway Patrol traffic checkpoint near a polling place. A recent poll by the Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Florida Times- Union found two-thirds of African American voters in Florida had little or no confidence in the voting system.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is under investigation after its agents went door to door in black neighborhoods collecting evidence about possible absentee-ballot fraud during last spring's Orlando mayoral race. The New York Times reported that many of the elderly voters were "frightened" by the questioning of armed state police.

Although Florida Gov. Jeb Bush does not seem to have a problem with the state police tactics, Mfume said, "The state police investigation reeks of voter intimidation. It doesn't pass the smell test."

NAACP lawyers will conduct training sessions on election protection, and the state's voters will receive instruction on new touch-screen voting machines. This will be followed by an intensive get out the vote campaign in preparation for the November presidential election.

Mfume said: "The election of local leaders and the next president of the United States is too important to trust the process to Florida election officials. We saw what happened the last time we did that."

The 2000 presidential election was decided in Florida by only 537 votes and forecasters are predicting another close election.

The NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are frontline advocates for civil rights, social justice and equal opportunity under law. The NAACP is a non-partisan organization that strives for fair and unbiased elections.