Vote caging in Florida…who knew?
Evidently, the election officials of Duval County did:
Files show talks on ‘vote caging’
TALLAHASSEE – Internal city memos show the issue of Republican “vote caging” efforts in Jacksonville’s African-American neighborhoods was discussed in the weeks before the 2004 election, contradicting recent claims by former Duval County Republican leader Mike Hightower – the Bush-Cheney campaign’s local chairman at the time.
“Caging” is a longtime voter suppression practice by which political parties collect undeliverable or unreturned mail and use it to develop “challenge lists” on Election Day.
The 3-year-old allegation of caging in Jacksonville gained new life last month, when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee received testimony indicating the GOP may have used the tactic in 2004.
Ann Farra, a former chairwoman of voter registration and education for the Duval County Democratic Party, said the fact no challenges occurred in 2004 is irrelevant, and Hightower was aware of the Bush-Cheney campaign tactics.
“This is like Bill Clinton saying he didn’t have sex with Monica Lewinsky,” Farra said. “Word had gotten out into the communities and caused people to stay away from the polls. Suppression was going on left and right.”</em>
Nothing to see here, move along. Just because the Bush-Cheney campaign guy was in the meetings, meetings where he claims caging wasn’t discussed, even though its been shown that it was, that doesn’t mean that they actually went ahead and did it.
The ONLY organized election fraud in this country is done at the hands of Republicans. You remember, that political party that rules by fear and fraud? Yeah, those guys.
