HungryBlues

Tuskegee Lynching Update from the Comments: Winston Deroyal Carter's Aunt

This case already looked like a cover up, just from what was said in the one existing news report of Winston Deroyal Carter's death. Now we're hearing that the Tuskegee Police is hiding the basic facts of Mr. Carter's death from his family. I received this comment from Mr. Carter's aunt a few hours ago.

My name is Kathy Fetterman and I live in Northern Virginia. Winston Carter, "DeRoyal" as we lovingly called him, was my nephew - more like my little brother since he was raised by my parents (his paternal grandparents). I have major concerns about the nature of DeRoyal's death. People want to say he committed suicide, but I have trouble believing that. The officers in Tuskegee are so quick to rule it a suicide because it's easy. They never allowed us, his family, to see the crime scene pictures as they promised and these pictures were taken with a digital camera supposedly. I don't know how thoroughly they investigated the crime scene or anything. There are so many unanswered questions. I just don't believe my nephew would have done that to himself.

A lot of other deaths have been covered right away - why has it taken so long for this to make the news, especially when there were so many people at the scene? I don't understand that either.

This stinks to high heaven. I wish my outrage were adequate to the loss of Ms. Fetterman and her family. I do not understand how anyone can treat Mr. Carter's grieving loved ones this way.

Nothing New In Tuskegee, Alabama

I was hoping yesterday or today to post more developments in Tuskegee. There is not yet much more to report. Tuskegee had its mayoral election today (Tuesday), after which it may become easier for some people to speak to the situation more than they're willing to right now.

One of the people whom I've been talking to from that part of Alabama said, "it is a myth that the Civil Rights Movement changed the South." That there is so little press, so little information available is, in fact, one of the resemblances between this "New" South murder and "Old" South racist violence.

Note that the Montgomery Advertiser article I quoted in my original post says

Carter's body was sent to the state crime lab to determine the cause of death. However, [Sheriff] Patrick said that from information his department has gathered about the case, he is leaning toward suicide.

The Sheriff does not have the results back from the state crime lab, yet he is "leaning towards suicide." Why? Based on what evidence? This doesn't sound a whole lot different than stuff like this:

George [Green] was telling me that one time he was with the FBI and they went around and talked to some sheriffs down there in Neshoba County[, Mississippi]. They found this guy, pulled a guy out of the water. He had been shot 69 times in the back. The FBI asked the sheriff, what did he think happened. The sheriff shook his head and said, "This is the damnedest case of suicide I ever saw in my life."

40 years ago in the South, the Klan, local and sate police and the FBI all worked hand in hand. Sometimes law enforcement made a point of simply looking the other way or obstructing proper investigations. Other times our agents of the law were the perpetrators themselves. It was a deep seated culture of hate and violence which has not been eradicated from all corners of today's law enforcement system.

A key piece of the struggle of activists against racist brutality has always been to get enough press to compel authorities, often at higher state or federal levels, to take action. In the 60s the US was fighting the Cold War against Communism. At that time media coverage of racist violence embarrassed the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. What kind of holy democratic alternative to communism was this if brutal, repressive racism was part of the American way of life?

Today we have the War on Terror and the war in Iraq, both in the name of our American freedoms, and we have a similar set of contradictions. We are losing freedoms in the name of freedom. A generation of young people is killing untold numbers of Iraqis and sacrificing their own lives in the name of our freedom and to stop terrorism. Meanwhile, America continues to brand its own sick forms of terror for use against its own citizens. As Scott B. put it, it's just "another kind of hell in a different period of time."

As it was before, the task now is to expose the contradictions until no more evasions and excuses are possible. I hope all who check here for developments in this case will wait attentively with me.

All honor is due to the person who called in on WKXN's radio talk show to report Winston Deroyal Carter's death and to the individuals in Alabama and elsewhere who are working to achieve justice for him.

Many thanks to the bloggers, listed below, who blogged the death of Winston Deroyal Carter, either at my request or on their own volition. There may be some folks missing from the list; if you've blogged my post on Tuskegee and I don't have your blog here, drop me a line with the link. Thanks also to all the live journalers who've been passing this around and thanks to the folks who've been spreading this on their discussion boards.

Alas, A Blog
Body And Soul
Bubblegeneration
Chatter
Churchgal
Cincinnati Black Blog
Cool Beans
Corrente
Exegesis
KTlog
Illruminations
My Friday-to-Sunday Life
Omlettesoft.com
The Oregon Commentator
The Poison Kitchen
Professor Kim's News Notes
Prometheus 6
Rain Storm
Raznor's Rants

Update (8/31/04):I just discovered that I missed Kevin's post at The American Street. I've been grateful for Kevin's expressions of concern in my comments and in email and for his help inside and outside the blogosphere.

Update (9/8/04): Erin at Lefties Unite picked up the Winston Carter case on her blog last week. Like Kevin, she's been doing some nice extrablogispatic publicity work as well.

Additional note (9/8/04): I had accidentally hit the wrong button on Ecto and posted today's update to this post as new post, which appeared at the top of the blog for an hour or two. Only I didn't understand precisely what happened, at first, and posted an erroneous explanation of what I'd done. This is my original post with updates and additional note added. Sorry for the confusion and for what havoc this may have wreaked on your rss readers. --BG

Voter Intimidation And The Reasons Why

Today, Bob Herbert continues his series on Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) intimidation tactics to keep African American voters from voting in Orange County, Florida. The strength of today's article is Herbert's analysis:

The Republicans were stung in the 2000 presidential election when Al Gore became the first Democrat since 1948 to carry Orange County, of which Orlando is the hub. He could not have carried the county without the strong support of black voters, many of whom cast absentee ballots.

The G.O.P. was stung again in 2003 when Buddy Dyer, a Democrat, was elected mayor of Orlando. He won a special election to succeed Glenda Hood, a three-term Republican who was appointed Florida secretary of state by Governor Bush. Mr. Dyer was re-elected last March. As with Mr. Gore, the black vote was an important factor.

These two election reverses have upset Republicans in Orange County and statewide. Moreover, the anxiety over Democratic gains in Orange County is entwined with the very real fear among party stalwarts that Florida might go for John Kerry in this year's presidential election.

It is in this context that two of the ugliest developments of the current campaign season should be viewed.

"A Democrat can't win a statewide election in Florida without a high voter turnout - both at the polls and with absentee ballots - of African-Americans," said a man who is close to the Republican establishment in Florida but asked not to be identified. "It's no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible. Black votes are Democratic votes, and there are a lot of them in Florida." . . .

The use of state troopers to zero in on voter turnout efforts is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, in Florida. But the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Guy Tunnell, who was also handpicked by Governor Bush, has been unfazed by the mounting criticism of this use of the state police. His spokesmen have said a "person of interest" in the investigation is Ezzie Thomas, a 73-year-old black man who just happens to have done very well in turning out the African-American vote.

From the G.O.P. perspective, it doesn't really matter whether anyone is arrested in the Orlando investigation, or even if a crime was committed. The idea, in Orange County and elsewhere, is to send a chill through the democratic process, suppressing opposing votes by whatever means are available.

The problem with Herbert's article is that he doesn't acknowledge that there may actually be something to the investigation (Stuart Buck via Body and Soul) which the FDLE is conducting. Jeanne D'Arc teases out the nuances just right:

The problem with playing this as such a -- well -- black and white issue is that it does no harm to Herbert's basic point to acknowledge that there may be reason to investigate Mr. Thomas's activities. (Although, curiously, before working for Buddy Dyer, Thomas "helped Glenda Hood win the Orlando mayoral race." If he's in the habit of filling out people's ballots for them, Florida might want to investigate all the candidates he's worked for.) The bigger issue is that even if there is reason to investigate Ezzie Thomas, Florida's way of going about it clearly accomplishes much more than just gathering information.

The response to Herbert's reporting is telling:

On Thursday, FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell fired back at Herbert, saying in a letter released by the department that he was "very disappointed" in the columnist and accusing Herbert of sensationalizing the story.

Tunnell said agents interviewed voters who had used absentee ballots in their homes so they might feel more relaxed than in an office setting. The agents did not wear uniforms for the same reason, he wrote.

They made a point not to wear uniforms because they didn't want to intimidate elderly people in their homes, but while they were thinking about how to handle the situation sensitively, it didn't occur to anyone that carrying clearly visible guns might not be a good idea?

Don't get distracted by the tit for tat of who's stealing the election from whom. Look at the patterns of vote suppression. Both the Democrats and the Republicans know perfectly well that each side engages in questionable electoral practices, worthy of investigation. Considering the criminal investigations not pursued regarding elections in Florida, this current one is clearly tactical to suppress enough black votes to bring Orange County back into the Republican fold.

This is a nice study in the power of racism in our society. Both political parties can probably be found guilty of inappropriately influencing voters in the the name of "helping" them cast their votes—an illegal act which should be prosecuted. But the practice which can decide the election one way or another is either fighting the effects of racism by getting out the African American vote or capitalizing on racism by playing on past African American experiences of intimidation and brutality.

Voting While Black

At the end of July, I picked up the story of Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) officers intimidating elderly, black voters in Florida. On Monday, in the New York times, Bob Herbert wrote about the situation, and now, today, in a follow-up, he's laid bare the true purpose of the FDLE "investigation."

State officials have said that the investigation, which has already frightened many voters and intimidated elderly volunteers, is in response to allegations of voter fraud involving absentee ballots that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March. But the department considered that matter closed last spring, according to a letter from the office of Guy Tunnell, the department's commissioner, to Lawson Lamar, the state attorney in Orlando, who would be responsible for any criminal prosecutions.

The letter, dated May 13, said:

"We received your package related to the allegations of voter fraud during the 2004 mayoral election. This dealt with the manner in which absentee ballots were either handled or collected by campaign staffers for Mayor Buddy Dyer. Since this matter involved an elected official, the allegations were forwarded to F.D.L.E.'s Executive Investigations in Tallahassee, Florida.

"The documents were reviewed by F.D.L.E., as well as the Florida Division of Elections. It was determined that there was no basis to support the allegations of election fraud concerning these absentee ballots. Since there is no evidence of criminal misconduct involving Mayor Dyer, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement considers this matter closed."

Well, it's not closed. And department officials said yesterday that the letter sent out in May was never meant to indicate that the "entire" investigation was closed. Since the letter went out, state troopers have gone into the homes of 40 or 50 black voters, most of them elderly, in what the department describes as a criminal investigation. Many longtime Florida observers have said the use of state troopers for this type of investigation is extremely unusual, and it has caused a storm of controversy.

The officers were armed and in plain clothes. For elderly African-American voters, who remember the terrible torment inflicted on blacks who tried to vote in the South in the 1950's and 60's, the sight of armed police officers coming into their homes to interrogate them about voting is chilling indeed.

One woman, who is in her mid-70's and was visited by two officers in June, said in an affidavit: "After entering my house, they asked me if they could take their jackets off, to which I answered yes. When they removed their jackets, I noticed they were wearing side arms. ... And I noticed an ankle holster on one of them when they sat down."

(via Body and Soul.)

That FDLE officer must have been incredibly relieved that he remembered to strap on his ankle holster before walking into such a dangerous situation. After all, you've got to watch out for a woman like that—black and in her mid-70s, ready to rear up at any moment and exercise her right to vote.

If You're Following The Tuskegee Lynching Story

I will be talking with Scott B. again, early this coming week and posting an update on the situation. So stay tuned . . .

Lynching In Tuskegee —blog this now!!

Today on the Civil Rights Movement email list I'm on, a number of members started posting links to this story from the Montgomery Advertiser.

TUSKEGEE -- Tuskegee police still are investigating the death of 29-year-old Winston Deroyal Carter, who was found hanging from a tree on County Road 65 in Tuskegee.

Tuskegee Police Chief Lester Patrick said a passerby noticed something hanging from a tree, but needed a second look. The passerby turned his car around, discovered Carter hanging from the tree and immediately called the police at 6:15 a.m. Friday.

Carter's body was sent to the state crime lab to determine the cause of death. However, Patrick said that from information his department has gathered about the case, he is leaning toward suicide.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. today at the Wall Street AME Church, with burial in the church cemetery."

I googled the vicitim's name and found that this story has not been picked up by any other news source. I went back to my emails and noticed mention of details not in the article, above. I inquired and was referred to Scott B., a former worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Yesterday, on Wednesday, August 18, Scott B. was a guest on Montgomery, Alabama's WKXN call-in radio talk show, It's For Real. Scott B., who is now retired in Montgomery, Alabama with his wife Linda, was talking about some of the issues facing African Americans in Montgomery today. During the show, a caller called in from Tuskegee and said that a man was found lynched on Friday morning.

Scott B. called the Tuskegee Police who replied that there hasn't been any lynching in Tuskegee. He called the Montgomery Advertiser, which could not provide any information about the situation. Scott B. decided to go to Tuskegee himself and talked to people in the local community. As the short article mentions, Carter's body was found at 6:15 a.m. last Friday, August 13. Before the police arrived on the scene, the news got out to the community and a substantial crowd gathered and saw Carter's body, still hanging from the tree. Observers noticed that Carter's shoelaces had been tied together and used to hold his pants up instead of his belt, which was used to hang him from the tree. Community members also saw that there was no available surface for Carter to step off of in order to hang himself. Rather, he would have had to have climbed up the tree with no laces in his shoes and straddle the branch, in order to attach himself to it by his belt, and then lower himself down with his own arms from that position. As a method of suicide this seems highly improbable if not physically impossible.

Scott B. called the Montgomery Advertiser again to relate what he'd learned and ask if they could provide any further information. Today, six days after Winston Deroyal Carter's body was found, the Montgomery Advertiser printed the story I quoted above. Mr. Carter was buried today, making further examination of his body unlikely and the word from Police Chief Patrick is that he is "leaning towards suicide."

Scott B. said to me, "The Civil War is not over. The South had not changed." He also explained that there is not the same basis there once was in the African American community to meet a situation like this.

If this story does not get national attention quickly, there is no chance for justice. We cannot allow this. Blog this. Email this. Write letters. Don't let this story disappear.

Delmar to Bombingham (6) — COMING FORWARD I

On Saturday morning, June 22, 1963, at around 9:00 a.m., A. D. King answered his front door and found Roosevelt Tatum. He was crying and saying he had something in his heart he wanted to tell. Tatum came inside and immediately noticed Paul Greenberg, the only white man among the dozen or more people in the house. Tatum had overcome his fear and wanted to say what he saw. When Tatum explained what he'd seen six weeks earlier, King asked him to talk to the FBI. Tatum agreed and King called the Birmingham FBI office to say that a man was at his home who saw persons responsible for the bombing. (RT-PROSUM, 19; RT-RFC, 1)

When Agents Graybill and McFall arrived at the King residence, they found Tatum there, in the company of A. D. King, Paul Greenberg, and King's secretary. The agents noticed alcohol on Tatum's breath, and he explained that he'd had a couple of drinks for the nerve to tell what he saw. A. D. King explained that Roosevelt Tatum claimed to have seen two Birmingham Policemen in car 49 bomb the King residence. Identifying himself as an employee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Paul Greenberg interjected, wanting to know how soon publicity could be released. One of the agents replied, "the FBI is strictly a fact-finding agency; we are present solely for the purpose of obtaining the facts. Any premature publicity might only tend to jeopardize the investigation." The Kings and Greenberg returned that they expected, in any case, to be present when Tatum would be interviewed. Fearing this would lead to an official interview occurring "in a press conference atmosphere" and that its content would be aired publicly, Special Agent (SA) McFall said that they needed a quiet atmosphere. In order to "properly obtain the facts," they needed to interview Tatum privately, at the FBI office. (AGM-TT-BHTEL, 5; RT-RFC, 1-2)

Tatum agreed to meet privately with FBI agents later the same day and made his second statement to the FBI. On May 12, he had told agents that though he was one of the first witnesses on the scene after the bombs went off, "he was not aware of the cars that were parked in the vicinity and could not describe any of them. . . . [nor did he] observe any suspicious activities on the part of any persons prior to the the time of the explosion." (RT-PROSUM, 12) Now, on June 22, Tatum told them what he really saw. At the end of the interview Tatum consented to be questioned again but with a polygraph. (AGM-TT-BHREPORT, 5)

The FBI documents that are the basis for this narrative have in them several remarkable interactions between parties involved in the Roosevelt Tatum case. One such moment was after Tatum's interview with the Birmingham agents. It is worth quoting the document at length:

Following the interview of Tatum, Reverend Mr. [A. D.] King asked the interviewing Agents their "candid opinion" of Tatum's story and indicated that he believed it to be true. He was advised that the FBI as an investigative agency deals with facts not opinions and that the information provided by Mr. Tatum would be thoroughly checked out.

Reverend Mr. King then stated he had discussed with Assistant Attorney General Marshall the possibility of sending Negro Agents to Birmingham to assist in the bombing investigations. He said that his people are not being treated fairly by city and state police officers and unfortunately do not always distinguish between such officers and FBI Agents. He feels that members of the Negro community might be more inclined to come forward and confide in Negro Agents.

Reverend Mr. King was informed that Agents of this Bureau are assigned investigative duties solely on the basis of the needs of the service and without regard to race or creed. It was further pointed out to him that all Bureau investigations are conducted in an objective and impartial manner regardless of the indentities of the individual Agents who are assigned to to the investigations. He was advised that this was true with regard to to the bombing investigations being conducted by the Bureau in Birmingham. Reverend Mr. King stated that he personally understood this and has great admiration for the Director and the FBI but that many of the less educated Negroes make no distinction between FBI Agents and local police.

In tactfully questioning the validity of his theory that Negroes would come forward to furnish information to Negro Agents, Reverend King was asked how many Negroes had come forward to voluntarily furnish such information to him, it being noted that he was the well known, highly respected and beloved pastor of the Negro community's church and the community's recognized leader. King admitted that Tatum was the only one. He then, in apparent realization of the point being made, rather sheepishly stated he had been in Birmingham only a year and a half and actually does not know members of the Birmingham Negro community too well. It was pointed out that that the failure of Negroes to come forward with information allegedly in their possession would appear to be a deficiency of the Negro community which could best by remedied by by the Negro leaders. It was further pointed out to Reverend Mr. King that he and other Negro leaders could be of great assistance if they would urge members of the Negro community to furnish the Bureau with any pertinent information in their possession. (AGM-MEM1, 2-3)

That night, at 9:18 CST, the Birmingham FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) filed a report to the FBI Director in Washington, DC. The SAC was at some pains to establish the reliability of the police officer who was driving police car number 49, which Tatum alleged to have seen outside the King residence. Though Tatum testified that there were two officers in Car 49 who perpetrated the May 11 bombing, the police officer who drove Car 49 that night had previously said that he was in the car alone. The SAC explained in his teletype that

IN VIEW OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CASE, THE INFORMATION FURNISHED BY TATUM IS BEING PURSUED, BUT FROM ALL INDICATIONS THERE WAS ONLY ONE OFFICER IN CAR FORTYNINE [sic] AND HE HAS MADE A COMPLETE STATEMENT CONCERNING HIS ACTIVITIES.

The SAC concluded with Tatum's consent to be interviewed by polygraph and, noting that there is an agent in Louisville who has given some polygraph exams and is "familiar with the facts," requested permission from the Bureau to approve the same. (AGM-TT-BHREPORT, 4-5)

The next morning, Sunday, June 23, at around 8:00 a.m, Tatum met up on 12th Street with a man known as Skeets. Skeets said that if the FBI came back for more interviews, he wanted to talk with them, too. Skeets said he saw car 49 pull off from the King house before the bomb explosions and then come back around the block again to arrive on the scene in the aftermath of the bombing. (RT-PROSUM, 26)

Reference Key
AGM-MEM1: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FBI file number. Memorandum, Rosen to Belmont, June 26, 1963.
AGM-TT-BHREPORT: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FBI file number. Teletype, SAC Birmingham to Director, June 22, 1963.
AGM-TT-BHTEL: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FB file number. Teletype, SAC, Birmingham to Director, FBI, June 26, 1963.
RT-PROSUM: Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Prosecutive Summary Report. October 23, 1963.
RT-RFC: Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Recommendation for Commendations. SAC, Birmingham to Director, FBI.

Lousy Local Conditions V

VOTER EDUCATION

After the 2000 election, there was broad consensus among administrators, voting rights advocates, elected officials, and elections scholars that the country needs more voter education. This includes not only education about the candidates and the issues, but information on how to register, how to cast a ballot, provisional balloting, and how to use the voting system machinery. Voters need education, too, on their voting rights under the law (especially the disabled and minority language voters). As the National Commission on Federal Election Reform Report noted, “Some administrators believe, with cause, that they can get more improvements, dollar for dollar, from voter education and poll worker training than they can from investments in new equipment.” The Democratic Caucus Special Committee on Election Reform report also urged increased voter education efforts, especially targeted to new voters. The Caltech/MIT report supports increased voter education, including the publication of sample ballots and establishment of instructional areas at polling places to reduce the number of lost votes. Other organizations that called for additional voter education included the League of Women Voters, the Constitution Project, and the NAACP

There is much evidence to suggest that giving voters proper instructions, through education and well-trained poll workers, is one of the most effective ways to protect the integrity of the vote. As an analyst for the Florida Division of Elections said, “‘Human error is the biggest threat to the integrity of any voting system. Even with your crudest systems, if the human does everything they’re supposed to, that system will work.’”

This conclusion is demonstrated by the reports we commissioned. For example, Los Angeles still uses the punch card ballot system, just like Florida. Yet at the same time, Los Angeles invests a great deal in a comprehensive voter education process—it is one of the best in the country. Moreover, it stepped up its voter education activities even more for the 2001 election, undertaking a public campaign called “Got Chad?” As a result, Los Angeles’ record of lost votes was much better than Florida’s and many other states that used punch card machines in 2000.

Miami also used punch card ballots again in its mayoral election in 2001. In the 2001 primary, however, in addition to regular poll workers, each polling site had a “tutor” to demonstrate how to use the punch card machine properly. The residual ballot rate was greatly improved over 2000. Then, in the runoff, every poll worker was also given a script to read to voters telling them they could not vote for more than one candidate and reminding them to check their ballots for hanging chads. Citywide, only 1.28 percent of ballots were discarded because of overvoting or undervoting. In the five precincts with the highest number of uncounted ballots in the primary election, where spoilage rates had been between 9 percent and 15 percent, in 2000, the rates plummeted to between 0.29 percent and 2.7 percent. . . .

In light of what transpired during the 2001 elections, it will certainly be interesting to observe how the country fares in the elections of 2002 and 2004. Except perhaps among activists involved in the issue, there seems to have been quite a lull in public interest or worry about the topic of election reform, especially with the advent of the nation’s war on terrorism. Perhaps that is the reason why the jurisdictions that performed relatively well on Election Day 2001 were ones that already had progressive systems in place and had made some further improvements immediately after the 2000 election, such as Los Angeles and Virginia. Jurisdictions such as New York City and New Jersey, operating with somewhat retrograde systems to begin with and stymied by both politics and budget shortfalls— especially after September 11—continue to be at a distinct disadvantage. Numerous other states and cities throughout the country find themselves in a position similar to that of New York City and New Jersey: they had faulty systems prior to the election of 2000, and then after that election made it clear how severe the problems were, they lacked the political wherewithal and/or the funding to take any strong measures to fix the problems.

(Ronald Hayduk, The 2001 Elections in New York City [pdf 348 KB]. A Century Foundation Report for The National Commission on Federal Election Reform. xviii-xxi,emphasis added.)

Lousy Local Conditions IV

LANGUAGE MINORITY VOTERS

One of the most serious though under-reported problems with the American election system is the lack of accessibility to the polls for language minority voters. It is difficult to quantify the number of minority language voters who are wrongfully and often illegally disenfranchised because required measures are not taken to assist them in voting. However, there was plenty of anecdotal evidence of such disenfranchisement in the 2000 election. For example, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that several thousand Spanish speaking voters were disenfranchised in Florida, as well as a large number of French-speaking Haitian voters. The commission reported, “Many poll workers were not properly trained to handle language assistance issues. Some voters found that even when volunteers were available to provide assistance, the volunteers or precinct workers were prevented from providing language assistance. In some instances, bilingual poll workers were directed to not provide language assistance to voters who were in need of that assistance.” As the two most diverse cities in the country, Los Angeles and New York City both face enormous challenges with respect to language minority voters: each has more minority voters than the states of New Jersey and Virginia combined.

Congressman Xavier Becerra testified before a Senate committee that fourteen poll sites in Los Angeles did not display or make available bilingual materials provided to them. At the same time, Los Angeles does a great deal to prepare for the complexities involved in administering an election that requires it to provide voting materials in seven different languages. The city works directly with the communities and ensures there are sufficient bilingual poll workers and translators at voting sites. The ongoing challenges Los Angeles faces are cultural ones—helping new immigrants understand the system politically and administratively. As a result, this and other similarly situated jurisdictions must focus their voter education efforts particularly on new immigrant voters. In addition, Los Angeles was hindered by its use of punch card ballots, which cannot provide ballot choices in a large number of languages as easily as other technologies. . . .

Not only are many poll workers unprepared to provide adequate services to language minority voters, particularly Asian Americans, but New York City also continues to experience a dearth of bilingual workers at the polls, despite increased efforts at recruitment. In 2001, the city was short 122 Chinese interpreters out of a total of 483 positions, 256 Spanish interpreters out of a total of 779 positions, and 19 Korean interpreters out of a total of 32 positions. New Jersey encountered a similar problem in 2001. In one county that must provide materials in Spanish, instructions in Spanish on the absentee ballots were reversed, so that voters were told to place their mark below (abajo) their preferred candidate rather than the correct way, above (sobre). Many of those ballots were counted when the votes were tallied, thus potentially distorting the result.

(Ronald Hayduk, The 2001 Elections in New York City [pdf 348 KB]. A Century Foundation Report for The National Commission on Federal Election Reform. xvi-xviii.)

Lousy Local Conditions III

POLLING SITE PROBLEMS

Another major problem highlighted during the 2000 election was the large number of people who for one reason or another were unable to cast a vote when they arrived at polling stations. For some, it was because their names were not on the voter registration list. According to a study by the organization Demos, “In at least 25 states, inaccurate or purged lists prevented some eligible voters from casting ballots.” For voters in jurisdictions that do not allow for provisional ballots in lieu of voting on the machines, this meant they had no opportunity to vote regardless of whether the error was theirs or that of the election administrators. According to the Caltech/MIT report, “We lost between one-and-a-half and three million votes because of the registration process in 2000. According to the U.S. Census, Current Population Survey, 7.4 percent of the forty million registered voters who did not vote stated that they did not vote because of registration problems.”

Other voters were discouraged because their polling sites were moved, poll workers gave out faulty information, or lines were too long. Again, according to Caltech/MIT, “We lost between 500,000 and 1.2 million votes because of polling place operations. According to the U.S. Census, Current Population Survey, 2.8 percent of the forty million registered voters who did not vote in 2000 stated that they did not vote because of problems with polling place operations such as lines, hours, or locations.” . . .

In New York City, there were still many problems at voting sites, but due to new funding, fewer than in previous years. Among the major problems were poll worker shortages, consolidated—and thus fewer—polling sites, a shortage of voting machines, and machine breakdowns, all leading to inadvertent but wrongful disenfranchisement. The worst problem may have been poorly informed poll workers. Although New Jersey’s complex and decentralized system makes it difficult to assess poll site problems, there clearly were some. By far the most troubling were incidents of outright voter intimidation aimed at minority voters. In the very jurisdiction being monitored by the Department of Justice because of past problems, many Latino voters received a threatening postcard warning them about election laws and claiming that there would be armed monitors at the polls. In addition, county administrators reported problems with poll workers who withheld information about the availability of provisional ballots. When provisional ballots were made available, poll workers failed to give voters instructions on how to cast those ballots. On the positive side, an increase in poll worker pay greatly increased the number of available poll workers. . . .

Cases of outright voter intimidation need to be addressed through federal law enforcement. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) does an admirable job of trying to monitor elections and pursue violations of the voting rights laws. Yet, intimidation occurred in a federally monitored jurisdiction in New Jersey in 2001. It may well be, therefore, that the federal government needs to bolster its commitment to monitoring elections and pursuing enforcement actions. . . .

(Ronald Hayduk, The 2001 Elections in New York City [pdf 348 KB]. A Century Foundation Report for The National Commission on Federal Election Reform. xiii-xvi, emphasis added.)