By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR

In a tactical victory for John Kerry, a Leon County circuit judge issued an emergency order Wednesday night knocking Ralph Nader off Florida's ballot...

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9614100.htm

:clap: :clap: :clap: That's GREAT news...........bluebutterfly :)

Wat a "putz" Ralph Nader is :P

Have a nice day :) .......................Andrew Paul

Yeah, and will a . . . ahem . . . higher court overturn that and put Nader back on the ballot?

Oh, if only they'd been able to keep Nader off the ballot in 2000. Things would be so different now . . .

A higher court overturning this.....Earthmother? Wouldn't that be typical??? (As I shake my head in disbelief :rolleyes: ) We will see :(


Have a nice day :) .............................Andrew Paul

It really doesn't matter all that much this year. I don't trust a damn thing about the voting system in Florida, as long as Jeb Bush is the governor. I did hear a while back about a new list of purged voters, mostly Black. Anybody know anything about this??? It seems voting in Florida is a waste of time if you're anti-Bush. Sure glad I don't live there.

Yeah, the purging continues. If you have the stomach for it, you can read about it below:
http://www.civilrights.org/issues/cj/details.cfm?id=24661

Criminal Justice Why You Should Care
Status Report

Voter Purge Lists in Florida Still Contain Inaccurate Information

By civilrights.org staff
August 10, 2004

Floridian Sam Heyward has been voting in presidential elections for years. As a black man voting in a contentious state in the upcoming November election, he knows his vote is exceedingly important. But Heyward found out in the last election that his vote was not counted, and has not been counted for more than a decade.

Convicted of a felony and briefly incarcerated in 1981, Heyward was informed that his voting rights were restored in 1986, years after release. His vote was not counted in the 2000 election.

On July 15, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a hearing to determine why eligible voters are still incorrectly purged from voter lists in Florida. Testifying before the Commission, Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way (PFAW), echoed Heyward's remarks.

"Mr. Heyward's case was by no means isolated. In fact, the Miami Herald found more than 2,100 people on the list who had received clemency and in fact had every right to vote under state law," Neas said.

Even more remarkable to some were the findings of investigative reporter and author George Palast, who also testified at the hearing. Palast said he discovered that some voters on the purge list were convicted in 2007, which he termed "future felons." In addition, 4,000 purged voters had blank conviction dates — providing no verification of a felony.

To demonstrate further injustice, Palast said that more than half of the voters on the purge list were African Americans, and he insisted that this was a pointed effort to undermine the strength of the African-American vote.

Voting rights advocates continue to call for immediate updates of the voter purge lists. Moreover, advocates have been urging states to abide by the Help America Vote Act requirement to notify a purged voter of his or her status within 60 days of the election. Heyward received no such notification.

Updated Purge Lists

In the wake of the 2000 election controversy and the subsequent scrutiny centered on Florida, the state hired consulting firm Accenture to build computer systems that find duplicate names and felons on the voter rolls. Accenture compiled voter information from a number of different agencies, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, and produced probable lists of voters.

Accenture's representative at the hearing, Meg McLaughlin, said the lists were not definitive and, ultimately, county officials would determine whether to accept or reject them.

Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ian Sancho said that the government's databases are still not updated, and therefore affect the validity of the voter lists.

"The list is worse this year," Sancho said, referring to the voter rolls produced by Accenture.

After Sancho's testimony, Mary Frances Berry, Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, remarked "garbage in, garbage out." She pressed McLaughlin on how Accenture, knowing that the government databases were not updated, could continue to produce voter lists from incomplete sources.

Sancho warns that while he refused to use the initial voter list because it was incomplete, other county supervisors might not do the same.

This is sickening. I do remember the previous purge list which had voters convicted in 2007, this a bunch of bulls**t. How the hell can the damn republicans get away with this in the first place makes me want to spit nails and to think they are trying to pull the same crap again this year. If only Al Was running, they couldn't get away with the same garbage again, but they will try it on a new victim, anything to help that evil thug THIEF Bush. Damn this.

Well how do you like this Dawn Roberts who is the Division of Elections director of Florida has given the O.K to put Ralph Nader on the florida ballot despite a judge's order issuing an injunction preventing the state to put nader's name on the ballot and why did ms roberts do this you might ask,because of hurricane ivan.

Thanks for the tip, ap215. I can't believe they're going to do this again! Read the story below:

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=...storyID=6224278

Florida OK's Nader's Name on Election Ballot
Mon Sep 13, 2004 06:31 PM ET


By Jim Loney
MIAMI (Reuters) - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name can appear on Florida ballots for the election, despite a court order to the contrary, Florida's elections chief told officials on Monday in a move that could help President Bush in the key swing state.

The Florida Democratic Party reacted with outrage, calling the move "blatant partisan maneuvering" by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, and vowed to fight it.

In a memo to Florida's 67 county supervisors of elections, Division of Elections director Dawn Roberts said the uncertainty of Hurricane Ivan, which could hit parts of the state by week's end, forced her to act.

The action came in an ongoing legal battle over whether Nader should be allowed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party candidate.

Nader, an independent nominated by the Reform Party, was a presidential candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes over then-Vice President Al Gore. Analysts said most of the nearly 98,000 votes Nader got in Florida would have gone to Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey issued a temporary injunction last week preventing the state from putting Nader on the 2004 ballot, siding with a Democratic challenge that the Reform Party did not qualify as a national party under state law.

A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Wednesday. But Roberts said Hurricane Ivan, which is headed for Florida's Gulf coast, had raised "a substantial question as to when such a hearing" will be held.

'PARTISAN MANEUVERING'

As a result, she said, Florida's Department of State had filed an appeal against the temporary injunction. The appeal application automatically lifts the injunction, allowing the counties to put Nader's name on overseas absentee ballots, which must be mailed by Saturday.

"I'm in disbelief," said Scott Maddox, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. "This is blatant partisan maneuvering on the part of Jeb Bush to give his brother a leg up on election day."

"They are trying to get ballots printed with Nader's name on them," said Maddox. "I am astounded that Jeb Bush is willing to defy the judiciary to help his brother." Continued ...

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

[second part of Reuters story from previous post, cont. here]

Maddox said if Nader drew votes away from any candidate it would be Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Gov. Bush said he agreed with Roberts' decision.

"It's up to the judge to determine, based on the law, whether Nader should be on the ballot or not," Bush said. "But while that process goes on, we cannot put ourselves in the position where the ministerial role of the supervisors cannot be fulfilled."

Maddox noted that Tallahassee, the state capital where Davey sits, is not expected to be directly hit by the hurricane. He said the circuit court could hear the case as scheduled on Wednesday and rule immediately.

In addition, the case is before the Florida Supreme Court, which could also rule at any time, he said.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

------------------------

Ugh. The Reuters link above doesn't work for some reason. Try this:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/9653940.htm

Same story, just different.