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After the 2000 fiasco, you'd think the Florida state government would be leary of setting up another purge list of potential felons, but you'd be wrong. For weeks now there has been a hue and cry in this state because the governor's office had again generated a list of "potential felons" they wanted purged from the voting rolls. The governor fought releasing the list to anyone besides election officials, but a lawsuit filed by CNN resulted in a ruling that the list had to be made public. Right off the bat an analysis by the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found 2,000 names on the list that were felons who had subsequently had their voting rights reinstated. They also found scores of innocent names on the list that were only similar to known felons. One county supervisor of elections is quoted as saying, "We know there were problems with [the list] from the outset, but now it appears there are so many flaws it's rendered completely useless."
The straw that broke the camel's back? While the number of black voters (who vote predominantly Democratic) on the list was in proportion to the state population, the number of hispanic voters (who vote predominantly Republican) was miniscule; although hispanics make up 17 percent of Florida's population, on 61 hispanic voters were on the list of 48,000 names to be purged.
Bowing to pressure, Governor Bush has scrapped the purge list and thus effectively returned Florida to the sysmtem used before Bush took office, in which any purging is based on the good judgement of county supervisors.
The straw that broke the camel's back? While the number of black voters (who vote predominantly Democratic) on the list was in proportion to the state population, the number of hispanic voters (who vote predominantly Republican) was miniscule; although hispanics make up 17 percent of Florida's population, on 61 hispanic voters were on the list of 48,000 names to be purged.
Bowing to pressure, Governor Bush has scrapped the purge list and thus effectively returned Florida to the sysmtem used before Bush took office, in which any purging is based on the good judgement of county supervisors.