Black lawmakers fear recount repeat

By Jeffrey McMurray  Gwinnett Daily News   08 October 2004

WASHINGTON — Four years after their unsuccessful challenge to the presidential race, the 39 black members of Congress are again among the nation’s loudest voices in the quest to ensure the Florida recount won’t be duplicated in 2004.
Millions of dollars have gone toward state-of-the-art voting machines in an attempt to remove the term ‘‘hanging chad’’ from the national vocabulary. But at a hearing convened Thursday by the Congressional Black Caucus, technological errors were less of a concern than human errors, and suspicion remained that Republicans might intentionally try to disenfranchise black voters.
‘‘If there is one thing the 39 of us see over and over again, it is the naked, raw use of power by the opposition,’’ said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.
Before George W. Bush was certified as the president-elect in 2000, members of the Congressional Black Caucus went to the well of the House one by one to protest the election. Ironically, Bush’s rival, Vice President Al Gore, presided over the joint meeting of Congress that day and ruled their protest couldn’t be accepted because it lacked a senator’s signature.
Black lawmakers, all of whom are Democrats, not only remember that episode but have made it a major rallying cry in their get-out-the-vote effort. Caucus Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland has predicted a record black turnout for Democrat John Kerry, even though the caucus has clashed with the Kerry campaign in recent months over strategy.
The lawmakers have suggested volunteers focus mainly on the handful of states considered in play. However, they’ve launched a national effort to ensure fewer black votes are overlooked, especially in Southern states that are expected to strongly back Bush.
‘‘We need to fight for every single vote,’’ said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas. ‘‘Don’t dumb down the vote. A percentage of minority voters are in states not in that column that should be counted.’’
Members of the caucus suspect that as many as half of all thrown-out votes in Florida were cast by minorities. They contend a transition to a more user-friendly touch-screen ballot won’t be enough.
Although no Florida government representatives attended the hearing to describe how the transition was going, an election official from another scrutinized state said she expected a major improvement nationwide.