Election officials failed to notify many voters in mostly black precincts that their polling place had been moved or closed. Other complaints included inadequate facilities and election personnel shortages, causing long lines. Rob Woodson, domestic policy adviser for Bush, told the Trotter Group he had heard of the allegations but had seen no evidence of voting irregularities. Hair and Arnwine said what happened was today's equivalent of poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literacy tests in America's shadowy post-Reconstruction past in which blacks were disenfranchised. This is current reality.
Republicans complain that the re-count push is centered in Democratic strongholds.
What's not being said is that new census data show that Miami-Dade County ranks 10th, Broward County 20th and Palm Beach County 37th in black population among 2,128 counties nationwide. The Congressional Black Caucus and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have asked Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the possible violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brazile told us this election shows a need for a new vigilance at the polls. For now she and others are merely seeking the truth. Blacks who were disenfranchised or intimidated into never voting again can't be abandoned.