Last election, Florida election authorities managed to do an end-run around voters with hanging chads, confusing butterfly ballots, and an archane set of rules that never brought into account how voter intent should be devined in a recount, using the outdated balloting system in place then.
Well, now people are on the lookout for such confusing ballots (we hope) as the next presidential election rolls around. Deprived of their previous method of deception, what do The Powers the Be in Florida use to margnialize voters, particular those in minority ethnic groups? Why, old-school intimidation, good-ol boy style, of course. It appears that a mysterious “investigation” of get-out-the-vote campaigns in Florida has commenced, with armed officers showing up in black neighborhoods, asking lots of questions:
Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voters leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.
Not surprisingly, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city’s black vote.
It’s a tried and true formula. When subtle methods stop working, intimidation comes next.