Black Voters 'Afraid' of Electronic Voting Machines, Activist Says
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 30, 2004

Miami (CNSNews.com) - An African-American civil rights spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines "terrify" her, and that blacks are "afraid of machines like that."

Joanne Bland, the director and co-founder of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma, Ala., told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines are going to intimidate black voters in Florida and elsewhere and surpress their vote in the November presidential election because many blacks are not "technologically savvy."

"The computers really terrify me. The electronic voting the new machines I think it will turn off a segment in my community, particularly the elderly. We are not as technically savvy, and we are afraid of machines like that, and they (African-Americans) probably won't go [to the polls] and they probably won't ask for assistance, said Bland, who spent the last week in Florida.

"It is going to turn them off totally and I want that to stop," said Bland, who also serves as a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Public Accuracy, which predicts that "several million voters" may be "deprived of voting rights again" in 2004.

When asked if she preferred low-tech punch-card ballots that produced the controversial hanging chads in Florida in 2000, Bland responded, "Now that was low technology to who? People that have been privileged to learn technology? There have been lots of changes in the United States, but if you look at the statistics, our biggest block of voters would be between 40 and 80, so when did those people have access to any kind of technology?"

As an 11-year-old in 1965, Bland took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She has just concluded a speaking tour on the history of the civil rights movement in the Miami area.

"I got the hell out of there Saturday, and I would suggest you do, too. Until we get rid of those Bushes (President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush), we're going to have a problem in Florida," Bland said.

GOP political operatives were quick to denounce Bland's comments.

African-American GOP consultant Tara Setmayer, who has worked on Florida congressional campaigns, called Bland's remarks "insulting" to black Americans.

"I think it's insulting to imply that African-Americans are unable to comprehend or assimilate modern-day technology," Setmayer said.

"As a registered voter in Florida, I am familiar with these touch screen voting machines,and they're very easy to understand, very voter-friendly," Setmayer told CNSNews.com. "Her claim is absurd," she added.

Syd Dinerstein, the chairman of Republican Party of Palm Beach County, also denounced Bland's comments.

"If there was ever proof positive that the black community needs a different set of leaders, statements like [Bland's] are exactly it," Dinerstein told CNSNews.com .

"I wish the Democrats thought as highly of the black community as Republicans do. We trust black parents to pick the right schools for their children, the Democrats don't. We trust black people to make informed electoral choices, the Democrats don't," Dinerstein said.

"It is sad that the soft bigotry of low expectations is at the core of the fundamental principles of the Democratic Party," he added.

Republican consultant and former political and government affairs director of the African American Republican Leadership Council also rejected the idea that blacks can't grasp computerized voting.

"What Bland is trying to say is voters down there [in Florida] are dumb, they are not educating themselves. She is saying that African-Americans when it comes to voting are intellectually inferior," Martin told CNSNews.com.

"You have touch screens in grocery stores, at [state run motor vehicle offices] and African-Americans seem to have no problem using those," he added.

'Voter intimidation' by Republicans

On Wednesday, the eve of the first presidential debate between Sen. John F. Kerry and President George W. Bush at the University of Miami, the NAACP and People for the American Way announced the results of a new study entitled "The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America."

The report alleges that the Republican Party is attempting to systematically suppress the voting rights of African-Americans.

Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, said, "Although voter intimidation has not historically been confined to a single political party, we are increasingly concerned about recent incidents indicating that Republican officials may be planning to challenge voters this year based on race."

Neas said, "There is more than one way to deprive people of their right to vote, from systematic and technical problems to inadequate voter education to illegal actions by public officials."

Martin, however, challenged the new report.

"I am sick and tired of hearing rhetoric about corruption. Show me some evidence. Name a government official involved in suppressing the black vote," Martin said.

"They can't [name officials] because it's nothing more than red herrings to feed to the black community to try to scare them so the Democrats can get 90 percent of the vote and people like Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and these groups can feel they have the right to sit at the table with Democrats like Kerry," Martin added.

Dinerstein completely dismissed any allegations of GOP vote suppression.

"In the [2000 presidential] election, not a single black person was deprived of their right to vote, but a significant number of the men and women in our service overseas were deprived of their right to vote by the Democratic Party," Dinerstein said, referring to the controversy over disqualified absentee ballots cast by members of the military.

Setmayer also rejected the new study from People for the American Way and the NAACP.

"I think it's a desperate attempt at trying to mobilize the black vote, because if you look historically at the areas in Florida where we have had the most voter fraud or suppression, as they call it [it has] been in the Democratic districts.

"It's an absurd claim," Setmayer said, considering that the election supervisors all have been Democrats.

"And they are taking that approach because they have a weak candidate. Kerry is a weak candidate because he has no rapport with the black community," she added.

Setmayer said Kerry's announcement on Wednesday that Jesse Jackson had officially joined his campaign was spurred by recent polls showing that Kerry's support is "slipping" in the African-American community."

A new Pew Research Center poll shows African American voters support for Bush has doubled to 12 percent from 6 percent, while Kerry's support has ped 10 points since August.

Bland said it's too bad that black voters give such overwhelming support to the Democratic Party.

"One of our problems is we are classified as Democrats that whole block of African-American voters. The largest portion of us will more than likely vote Democrat, and that makes us not a party in the game, period," Bland said.