MIM Notes 223 December 1, 2000 Election 2000: Dems' "disenfranchisement" hypocrisy In the nonstop discussion over the close election returns in Florida and the U.$. as a whole, several mantras emerged that MIM takes this opportunity to challenge: 1) Political disenfranchisement is measured by one's access to the ballot; 2) Political participation is measured by one's exercise of the ballot; 3) Every vote "counts" in choosing the Amerikan president. For the ruling class, the ritual of choosing its representative is a measure of participation, and one that they're willing to devote massive resources to. But Amerika's internal semi-colonies are disproportionately denied this ritual, to say nothing of the billions of people abroad impacted by Amerikan militarism and imperialism. The hypocrisy of Amerika's electoral farce is but one measure of Amerika's oppression -- and not the most important one at that. Disenfranchisement in Florida and Amerika Among others, at issue in Florida was the design of the Palm Beach County ballot card, which apparently led thousands of voters to punch the wrong hole and vote for reactionary Reform candidate Pat Buchanan instead of reactionary Democratic candidate Al Gore, or punch two holes, thereby invalidating the ballot. In preparing to mount a court challenge, Gore's campaign spokesperson said this was to "demand some redress for the disenfranchisement of more than 20,000 voters in Palm Beach County."(1) And as Democratic activists from Florida to California staged protests in the week following the election, they carried signs reading "Free the Palm Beach 19,000" (appropriating the historically militant slogans of political prisoners) and the more liberal "Let My Vote Count." All the Gore campaign cares about is getting Gore into the White House, but they draped themselves in the rhetoric of civil rights, saying some Florida voters were denied their vote. The anti- imperialist movement should use this opportunity to expose a much greater injustice and incidence of disenfranchisement in Florida than a confusing ballot given to elderly condo-dwellers of Palm Beach. That's in Florida's prisons and criminal injustice system. Florida leads the country with the most number of people barred from voting by virtue of a felony conviction: 647,100 in 1998. That's 63,700 in prison, 137,200 on probation and 9,200 on parole. Where are the rest, you ask? Florida, like 13 other states, bans convicted felons from voting for life, making up another 436,900.(2) As the candidates argued over a few hundred or thousand votes, 647,000 is certainly a large number. In fact, it's 5.9% of the adults in the Florida. But even that's not the bulk of the issue. Almost a third (31.2%) of Black men in Florida can't vote because of felony disenfranchisement.(2) There were further claims from this election that registered, eligible Black voters were harassed and kept away from the polls in other ways. At press time, numbers were not available, but Black "state politicians said they have received widespread complaints, particularly from black immigrants."(3) Haitian immigrants that did not speak English complained they were denied instructions on how to vote.(4) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) "said they heard how people were not allowed to vote because their race did not match details on the state records."(4) Still more Black voters were turned away from the polls because there was an alleged shortage of ballots.(5) The NAACP is currently collecting affidavits from those affected. "In Woodville, outside Tallahassee, civil rights workers said the Florida highway patrol set up a drivers' license checkpoint near the local polling station, and claimed its purpose was to pressure black voters into staying away from the polls. A third of the local population is black. A spokesman for the highway patrol denied the allegation, saying more tickets were given to white drivers than to blacks. There was a further claim that black voters had been turned away from a polling station in Tampa."(6) In Amerika, Blacks are disproportionately subject to police harassment, arrest and incarceration regardless of any actual guilt. It's certainly plausible that a police presence near the polls could negatively affect voter turnout. But presidential elections happen only every four years. Anti-imperialists should take this as more incentive to fight the ongoing colonial police occupation of Black communities. Low voter turnout is a piece of this principal contradiction, not the other way around! In a country that has spent much of its existence openly barring Blacks and other oppressed nationalities from voting, it is not surprising to find this kind of covert, decentralized voter harassment on the local level. Such harassment and genuine disenfranchisement, and the larger context of Amerikan oppression of Blacks, Latinos, and First Nations far outweighs the one-time confusing ballot that might have led to some white votes not counting in Florida this year. MIM and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League urge activists to see beyond the trappings of electoral democracy and participate in exposing and fighting imperialist aggression in prison and around the world. Notes: 1. Statement by Chairman William Daley, http://www.algore.com 11/9/00 2. Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States. Report by The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch. October 1998, http://www.hrw.org/reports98/vote/ November 9, 2000. 3. Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2000, p. 26. 4. The Mirror, November 10, 2000 p. 4. 5. The Scotsman, November 10, 2000 p. 3. 6. The Independent (London), November 10, 2000, p. 3.