Voter purge list’s errors spur outcry

San Carlos man on list by mistake

Staff and wire report
 Published by news-press.com on July 3, 2004

A San Carlos Park man’s name appears on a Florida Division of Elections list of more than 47,000 voters who are suspected of being felons, dead or doubly registered.

The list was sent to county elections supervisors, who are expected to use it to determine who should be removed from the voting rolls before this year’s election.

Robert Gesek, 50, was surprised Friday to learn that his name was on the list. While he has a felony conviction in his past, he received clemency and has been voting ever since.

Gesek is one of thousands in Florida granted clemency who nonetheless appear on the list for removal from voter rolls.
A registered Republican, Gesek said he lost his voting privileges for about eight years after a drug conviction as a teenager. He sought clemency specifically so he could regain the right to vote.

Gesek, who helped build a church float for today’s Fourth of July parade, said he had not encountered any problems voting.

“I’m very concerned (about being on the list),” Gesek said. “Nobody has contacted me. I have a voter registration card. If I have a problem voting this time, I’ll be very surprised.”

Wide release of the list came Thursday, after a judge ruled in favor of several media companies, including CNN and The News-Press, that filed suit seeking seeking copies of the list.

The revelation of potential errors brought condemnation from civil rights groups.

“There is no excuse for such negligence by state officials with regard to the most fundamental right of an American citizen — the right to vote,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

House Democrats called on elections director Dawn Roberts to recall the purge list and instruct election supervisors to ignore it.

“The prospect of Florida repeating the same disenfranchisement of its citizens as it did in 2000 is appalling,” wrote Reps. Dan Gelber, Arthenia Joyner and Anne Gannon.

The purge of felons from voter rolls has been an issue in Florida since the disputed 2000 presidential election. A company hired to identify ineligible voters before the election produced an error-filled list and some elections supervisors removed voters without verifying its accuracy.

The Division of Elections continues to warn it is the responsibility of supervisors to check the names.

Spokeswoman Nicole de Lara said the list is a database of potential matches, not a final list of names that will be purged from the voter rolls.

“We recognize there are people on this list that are not felons,” de Lara said. “This list is the beginning of the process, not the end of the process.”

The Division of Elections contracts with vendors to build its voter purge list from disparate sources: felon data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, clemency data from the Office of Executive Clemency, death data from Vital Statistics, and voter registration directly from the 67 counties.

Originally, Florida accepted near-matches between felons and voters for inclusion on the purge list. A court-approved settlement over the 2000 election by the NAACP and other civil rights groups now forces Florida to use tighter criteria.

The result: supervisors were asked in September to recheck 19,303 names given them in 1999 and 2000. One of three voters on the original purge lists are still waiting for that review.

People for the American Way has accused Florida of a breach of the court settlement, and the matter is scheduled for mediation next week.

Within hours of the judge’s decision Thursday, People for the American Way posted it on the Web.

“The state has admitted there could well be errors, which could include individuals who have never even committed a crime,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way. “Now we can help people check for themselves.”

— Tallahassee reporter Paige St. John, staff writer Grant Boxleitner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WHAT'S NEXT
• Florida is headed back to court over its problems in determining who can and who cannot vote. Lawyers for the state and for civil rights groups are scheduling mediation next week over Florida’s alleged failure to ensure eligible voters mistakenly put on purge lists four years ago regain their voting rights. • You can check the list yourself. If you’re listed as a felon and shouldn’t be, contact the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The agency has posted a form on its Web site. • On Election Day, anyone who feels they have been inadvertently removed from the voter rolls will be allowed to use a provisional ballot. Those ballots will be later examined to determine the voter’s eligibility.