Fla. Scraps Flawed Felon Voting List

Fla. Scraps Flawed Felon Voting List

I was hopeful that the publicity had shamed Jeb into doing the right thing. But after all these years in politics I should have been more cynical.

The decision to scrap the list was made after it was reported that the list contained few people identified as Hispanic; of the nearly 48,000 people on the list created by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, only 61 were classified as Hispanics.

That was because when voters register in Florida, they can identify themselves as Hispanic. But the potential felons database has no Hispanic category, which excludes many people from the list if they put that as their race.

¡Ay caramba! This bizarre mix of barely disguised racism and inept database management could be the whole ball game this year. Here's the key statistic:

"The list had about 28,000 Democrats and around 9,500 Republicans, with most of the rest unaffiliated..."

Let's do some math.

28,000 to 9,500. That's roughly 75% Democratic (74.666to infinity, but close enough). Let's assume, as studies repeatedly show, that the no-partys break 50-50, just like Florida as a whole did in 2000.

Let's also assume 50% turnout among registered voters (as opposed to voting age population). I think that's lowball, but Florida is usually a lower turnout state.

That gives us an approximate result from the Flawed Felon List of

Kerry 16,625
Bush 7,375

and a Kerry margin of 9,250.

Which is waaaaaaaaay more than 537.

OK. So maybe you think Bad People shouldn't vote. Consider another stat:

State officials have said there are people on the list who are not felons, and elections workers have flagged more than 300 people listed who might have received clemency. Another problem was that about 2,700 people who had received clemency were still on the list. That was because they had registered to vote before they received clemency. The state initially required them to register again, but later backed off.

So at LEAST 3000 mistakes out of 48,000. That's 6.25% as a bare minimum. And 6.25% of 9,250 is 578.

Which is STILL more than 537.

The whole ball game.

Word to the wise: If you HAVEN'T been bugged to death by mail and/or phone calls by October, double-check your voter registration.