GOP Accused of Planning to Obstruct Blacks at Florida Polls
OCALA, Fla. — The Bush campaign is planning an election day effort to disrupt ballot casting by African Americans by challenging voters whose names are on a "caging list," according to a British news report.
Citing an internal GOP e-mail with the subject line "caging," the BBC reported Tuesday that Florida Republicans had a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely black and traditionally Democratic areas of Jacksonville.
Republican officials contend that the list merely records returned mail from fundraising solicitations or letters sent to newly registered voters in Duval County, ostensibly to verify their addresses.
"This list was not compiled to challenge voters at the polls and it will not be used for that purpose," said Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a senior advisor to the Florida GOP.
But African American leaders Wednesday called the list another "shameful" Republican effort to keep blacks from voting.
"This is just another tactic they're using to frustrate and discourage black voters in Florida," Jacksonville minister Lee Harris said. "It's unfortunate they're resorting to these tricks against African American voters and the entire community."
The list was obtained by the BBC from the publishers of a satirical website, georgewbush.org, which received it as an e-mail attachment mistakenly sent by a Republican Party researcher. The researcher intended to send the list to a Bush campaign staffer through the campaign's e-mail server at georgewbush.com.
The creator of georgewbush.org, John Wooden, a website designer from Brooklyn, said he sent the voter list to the BBC reporter before posting it.
Black leaders met Wednesday with election officials, who assured them they did not know about the GOP list.
"It's been 40 years since the Civil Rights Act, and blacks in this country are still struggling for the basic right to vote," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, whose district includes Jacksonville and who attended the meeting. "These people will do whatever it takes to win an election. I don't care who you are -- Republican, Democrat or what -- don't you want things in Florida to be fair and square for once?"
Brown also expressed outrage over a segment of the BBC report that showed a private investigator in a vehicle with blacked-out windows filming African Americans as they cast votes during early balloting in Jacksonville. The investigator told the British film crew that he did not know who paid for his services.
