Election Day in Florida

the presidential election in florida has revealed the state of democracy in America on at least three occasions. Contested Florida ballots played a key role in the election of 1876 that ultimately spelled the end of Reconstruction. More recently, the 2000 Bush-Gore debacle cast a troubling shadow over the nation. People from all walks of life debated the bewildering chain of events that culminated with the Supreme Court’s dramatic intervention in the contested election. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights noted, “The state of Florida’s electoral process took center stage as the world paused to observe the unfolding drama of identifying the next President of the United States.”2 Most accounts of the crisis missed the decisive factor in the election’s outcome: the disfranchisement of many African American, Latino, and Haitian voters under dubious pretenses.3 After sifting through one hundred thousand pages of documents and listening to the testimony of more than one hundred people, the Commission on Civil Rights concluded: “Voting is the language of our democracy. As the Supreme Court observed, ‘no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.’ It is clear that many people in Florida were denied this precious right.”4