Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

[BlueNomad]

Oct 16, 7:04 PM EDT

Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.

In a May 4 e-mail obtained by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer expert Jeff Long told his boss that a Department of State computer expert had told him "that yesterday they recommended to the Gov that they 'pull the plug'" on the voter database.

The e-mail said state election officials "weren't comfortable with the felon matching program they've got," but added, "The Gov rejected their suggestion to pull the plug, so they're 'going live' with it this weekend."

Long, who was responsible for giving elections officials his department's felon database, confirmed the contents of the e-mail Friday to the Herald-Tribune. He said he didn't remember the specifics, but that Paul Craft, the Department of State's top computer expert, had told him about the meeting with Bush....

2004 The Associated Press.

<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FLORIDA_FELONS_VOTING?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>

[budkin]

1. Are you kidding me!?

People are letting them get away with this shit again!? NO WAY!!!

[shockingelk]

15. the list isn't being used

that's the reading I get from this article:

In May, Bush was warned that the list had problems, but they didn't decide to scrap the list until July.

[ogradda]

2. gosh

now why would he have done that?:eyes:

[George_S]

3. Dems have an army of lawyers on that kind of stuff

No worries.

[NC_Nurse]

4. I'm Shocked!!!

Shocked I tell ya!!! :eyes:

[pa28]

5. One party Govt = No accountability and no reason to hide it . . .

Notice this line:

"Hispanics, who often vote Republican in Florida, were almost entirely absent from the list due to a technical error."

[wishlist]

6. Jebbie has been outed on his little fib- hope it comes back to bite him

I wonder if there might be an anti-Bush backlash over all of these reports coming out about their blatant attempts to prevent people from voting.

[Amigust]

10. "hope it comes back to bite him' - Yeah, like a T Rex

eom

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. Technical error my

:kick:

[flordehinojos]

8. Why are Columba Bush and Noelle Bush not on the list?

They should be. Columba for smuggling jewelry and clothes into the U.S. and Noelle ... for her drug abuse. They are Hispanic. They would vote for Bush and they are Bushes themselves. Gee, I wonder why they didn't make the list!

[Zorra]

9. If Jeb Bu$h were to be investigated by an unbiased commission and

prosecuted by an unbiased prosecutor in an unbiased courtroom, he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison.

[Rose Siding]

11. Here's the original Sarasota paper article-

Bush urged to 'pull the plug' on voter purge

Several days before the state's felon voter list was sent to county elections offices across Florida, state officials expressed doubts about its reliability.

The doubts were serious enough that Gov. Jeb Bush was advised to "pull the plug" on the entire project, according to an e-mail written by a state computer expert and obtained by the Herald-Tribune.

Bush refused the request, the e-mail said, and told the Department of State to proceed with the purge of nearly 48,000 voters.

Two months later, after flaws in the list were exposed in the press, the state abandoned the effort to purge voters on the list. Those flaws were revealed after Secretary of State Glenda Hood lost a court battle to keep the list hidden from the public.

Bush said Friday that he was never warned about any problems before the list was released.

But his denial contradicts a May 4, 2004, e-mail in which Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer expert Jeff Long describes how election officials told Bush the list needed to be abandoned.....MUCH more....

http://www.newscoast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041016/NEWS/410160348

[CBHagman]

12. Why is Jeb Bush still governor?

I just don't get this. Terms like "corruption" and "conflict of interest" run through my mind when I think of how the Bushes have handled matters for the last few years. Why do the people of Florida give this guy a pass?

Floridians, care to weigh in?

[tlcandie]

13. I didn't vote for him...

He's kinda like his big brother...hard to get rid of. Maybe we need some fly or special toilet paper trick? :shrug:

[CBHagman]

14. Of course I didn't mean you.

And I'm sure my friends in Tampa wouldn't vote for the scoundrel either.

I'm beginning to think we need Bush family repellent in this country. Hey! A new small business. A GOOD OR A SERVICE. Let's DEMAND that good or service.

(Who does that sound like?)

[Skarbrowe]

16. I'm not sure Jeb won his last election.

Hey, it's Florida. I was living (temporarily) 3 hours away from where I was still registered to vote and I made the trek to vote for McBride. It was on those ATM voting machines that have been proven to be junk. You know, the ones thousands of people are going to use in a couple of weeks. McBride made a good showing in the vote count. Now, think of all the votes for him that weren't counted.

Florida is a mess. I've already voted absentee ballot for Kerry. It's an awful feeling to realize that your vote could just disappear. Someone put up a county by county number of registered voters in Florida and I think it indicated quite a few more Democrats than Republicans and a large amount of independents.

In a semi-perfect world Florida should go to Kerry easily. But I am not holding my breath.

[Cocoa]

17. this doesn't even matter

so sez Jeb anyway...

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041017/NEWS/410170535/1060&Page=2


Bush told Stephanopoulos that he had never met Long and that he didn't know why Long would write an e-mail describing a meeting that never took place.

"I can't. I can't tell you specifically," he said. "The fact though is that the list … the list is no longer used. In July, we didn't use it. We're not using it for this election, so it doesn't even matter."

[undergroundrailroad]

18. NAACP And Other Civil Rights Groups Filed Lawsuit After 2000 Election

Settlement Reached In Florida Election Lawsuit
NAACP And Other Civil Rights Groups Filed Lawsuit After Disputed 2000 Election



The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups today announced the settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed against the state of Florida and seven counties after many African American and other voters were disenfranchised during the presidential election on Nov. 7, 2000.

<snip>

Central Voter Database
Eligible voters who were removed from the voter rolls in error will be identified and restored to the lists. New procedures will be implemented to help prevent mistakes, such as misidentifying voters as having been convicted of a felony, or incorrectly identifying voters as having registered elsewhere, from occurring in the future as the new statewide Central Voter Database is put in place.

[young_at_heart]

19. Florida is like the Energizer Bunny. Keeps on going.........backward

One wonders if Florida will ever get its' act together?

[jpak]

20. The first thing President Kerry's Justice Dept. should do

is vigorously prosecute any and all voter fraud conducted by the GOP.

Kerry should put every one of these scumbags (at least the ones ChimpCo doesn't pardon) in the dankest most dangerous prison the federal system has to offer.

and throw away the key...