Databases, Felons, and Voting: Errors and Bias in the Florida Felons Exclusion List in the 2000 Presidential Elections
This paper examines the production and use of the exclusion lists by the state, its private sector contractor, Database Technologies (DBT), and Florida’s 67 counties between 1998 and the 2000 elections. It places the exclusion lists in the context of the social and political structure of the United States and the state of Florida, and interprets its significance within that context. I provide a detailed accounting of the contents of the lists, identify ways in which the lists reveal weaknesses in Florida’s voter list maintenance procedures up to 2000, and identify the types of errors made and biases in the production and use of the lists. The three major findings of the analysis are: a) the 2000 felons’ exclusion list had a considerable number of errors in it, probably more than 25% of the names on the list were on there in error; b) these errors were racially biased, such that more African-American registered voters were on the list in error than either Whites or Latinos; and c) that the decentralized process by which the felons’ list was used to purge the voter rolls resulted in a sometimes judicious but sometimes partisan purging process – Democratic county supervisors were less likely to use the felons’ list than Republican ones, but even the latter found considerable, biased errors in the list.
Negro Suffrage in the Period of Constitution-Making, 1787-1865
During the period of the making of the constitution for the federal government and the states, developed considerable discussion and action concerning the suffrage for Negroes. It is interesting to observe that when our democracy was writing its beliefs into law there was either direct opposition to or neglect of a definition of the voting status of Negro citizens. Many Negroes had exercised suffrage in the colonial period. They had served as soldiers in the colonial wars and in the war of the American Revolution. They had been property owners and tax payers, heads of households, and members of the churches, but they were kept from the ballot boxes even when most of the constitutions were made. With so little definition of the meaning of the term "citizen" in the thinking of the makers of the constitutions, it was inevitable that misunderstandings should arise throughout this period between the states and their citizens and the federal government and the states. The Federal Convention, the state conventions, the United States Congress, and the state legislatures all followed the course of inactivity, neglect and indifference in reference to their citizens of color and their status as voters. It is of value to note, however, the aggressive attitude of Negroes and the friends
First Along the River: A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement
Chapter 1: Philosophical Foundations Chapter 2: The 1400s through the 1700s: Inhabiting a New Land Chapter 3: The Early 1800s: Destroying the Frontier Chapter 4: The Late 1880s: Building an Industrial Nation Chapter 5: The 1900s through the 1930s: Beginnings of the Conservation Movement Chapter 6: The 1940s through the 1960s: Prelude to the Green Decade Chapter 7: The 1970s: The Conservation Movement Matures Chapter 8: The 1980s: A Conservative Backlash Chapter 9: The Early 1990s: Government Retrenchment and Public Apathy Chapter 10: The Environmental Movement in the Post-9/11 World Conclusion