Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Black Ex-Felons Could Have Made The Difference For Al Gore
In Florida, it is believed that 1 in 3 Black men have lost their right to vote because of criminal justice issues.
November 8, 2000
Black Ex-Felons Could Have Made The Difference For Al Gore
By Cedric Muhammad
It is a paradoxical situation. If it turns out that Al Gore loses Florida and the Electoral College to George W. Bush, he may have more to blame than malfunctioning ballot machines and Nader supporters. If he and his supporters are honest, they may have to blame the Clinton-Gore administration and a criminal justice system that locked up Blacks wholesale, over the last 8 years, for non-violent offenses.
Because 13 percent of all Black men can not vote because of incarceration and past felony convictions, and because this presidential election is so close, it may very well prove to be true that Blacks who have served their time in prison and gone on to lead productive and reformed lives, could have provided the margin of victory for Al Gore and Democrats in Congressional races, if they were allowed to vote.
This very real possibility is based on the expectation that party affiliations for Black ex-offenders would mirror those in the larger Black population -- with Blacks overwhelmingly registered as Democrats.
A very dear friend of mine who campaigned on behalf of Al Gore told me that in her Get-Out-The Vote (GOTV) efforts she heard over and over again, from the Blacks that she made outreach to, that they could not vote because of their criminal records. In addition to this, several of my friends and I have people close to them who have lost the right to vote because of their criminal records.
And because this dilemma affects Blacks at a much higher clip than other groups, it may very well have determined the outcome of the 2000 elections in the race for the presidency and in several congressional races. And maybe even more dramatically, it may have determined the outcome in hotly contested Florida. In Florida, it is believed that 1 in 3 Black men have lost their right to vote because of criminal justice issues.
And it does not end there. Pull out an electoral map and the voting returns and compare it to the Reuters article that follows. You can see that the outcome of the 2000 presidential race, at least, was affected by the incarceration of Blacks:
Black Ex-Felons Could Have Made The Difference For Al Gore
By Cedric Muhammad
It is a paradoxical situation. If it turns out that Al Gore loses Florida and the Electoral College to George W. Bush, he may have more to blame than malfunctioning ballot machines and Nader supporters. If he and his supporters are honest, they may have to blame the Clinton-Gore administration and a criminal justice system that locked up Blacks wholesale, over the last 8 years, for non-violent offenses.
Because 13 percent of all Black men can not vote because of incarceration and past felony convictions, and because this presidential election is so close, it may very well prove to be true that Blacks who have served their time in prison and gone on to lead productive and reformed lives, could have provided the margin of victory for Al Gore and Democrats in Congressional races, if they were allowed to vote.
This very real possibility is based on the expectation that party affiliations for Black ex-offenders would mirror those in the larger Black population -- with Blacks overwhelmingly registered as Democrats.
A very dear friend of mine who campaigned on behalf of Al Gore told me that in her Get-Out-The Vote (GOTV) efforts she heard over and over again, from the Blacks that she made outreach to, that they could not vote because of their criminal records. In addition to this, several of my friends and I have people close to them who have lost the right to vote because of their criminal records.
And because this dilemma affects Blacks at a much higher clip than other groups, it may very well have determined the outcome of the 2000 elections in the race for the presidency and in several congressional races. And maybe even more dramatically, it may have determined the outcome in hotly contested Florida. In Florida, it is believed that 1 in 3 Black men have lost their right to vote because of criminal justice issues.
And it does not end there. Pull out an electoral map and the voting returns and compare it to the Reuters article that follows. You can see that the outcome of the 2000 presidential race, at least, was affected by the incarceration of Blacks:
For more information:
http://www.blackelectorate.com/
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$210.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
Voteless in Florida
Thousands of Florida residents were struck from the voter lists because they were mistakenly identified as ex-felons, just months before what has become the closest election in US history. With Bush apparently leading Gore by only hundreds of votes, in a state with hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters, could similar errors be tipping the race?
by Sasha Abramsky
Hundreds or even thousands of Florida residents may have been erroneously crossed off the voter lists because they were mistakenly identified as ex-felons.