Anger over 2000 election remains strong for Florida blacks

RIVIERA BEACH, Florida, Oct 19 (AFP) - Democratic campaigners are targeting Florida's black community, hoping to channel their anger over the 2000 electoral fiasco into a resolve to defeat President George W. Bush.
In recent months, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other top activitists have traveled to the southeastern state to help rally fellow African-Americans behind Democratic candidate John Kerry.
As part of the effort, African-American legislators and celebrities went on a get-out-the vote bus tour of black communities in Florida.
A strong black turnout in Florida could be crucial for Kerry, as a few hundred votes could again determine the result in this battleground state that played the decisive role in the 2000 presidential election.
The Democrats have a strong argument within the African-American community, where anger over the 2000 "Florida fiasco" simmers on.
This is certainly the case in Riviera Beach, a predominently black town on the southeastern coast, where many residents are convinced Bush stole the last election.
"I'm most definitely going to cast my ballot, last time was simply messed up," said William Spencer, as he fried fish in his popular Island Seafood Kitchen restaurant.
"I'm still upset that they didn't count up a lot of votes," said Spencer, 48.
Many Democrats claim Bush unfairly defeated his Democratic rival Al Gore, when the US Supreme Court halted five weeks of legal wrangling and recounts, leaving him to win the presidency with a lead of 537 votes in Florida.
Thousands of votes went uncounted, largely because voters who often found the ballots confusing, did not fill them out properly or failed to fully perforate the now infamous punch-card ballots.
In Riviera Beach, close to the swank homes of Palm Beach, as many as 16 percent of the ballots were discarded, twice as many as the state average. More than a few people believe this was no coincidence.
"Studies show that the African-American community feels more disenfranchised than other minorities in Florida," said Susan MacManus, a political analyst at the University of South Florida.
Anger also focused on a list of felons who under Florida law are not allowed to vote, and which disproportionately affects African-Americans.
Predominently black precincts also had an above-average number of malfunctioning voting machines in the 2000 election.
"Since we have a Republican governor, a Republican state legislature and Republican control over our state institutions and machinery, I think there are some concerns among African-Americans that a lot of the forces in place would work against them," said Robert Jackson, a political analyst at the Florida State University.
The key question is whether this will motivate African-Americans to cast their ballots, or convince them it's not worth the effort.
Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown, a Kerry supporter, is optimistic turnout will be heavy despite the anger over 2000.
"We were disappointed, disheartened, but we have not reached the stage where we are disillusioned," said Brown.
"We African-Americans are used to swimming upstream. The American dream has rarely worked for us over time."
He said he was certain Bush would get only a few votes in his community.
While Florida Republicans would like to make inroads in the African-American community, they have focused largely on trying to grab Jewish and Hispanic votes away from the Democrats.
At a recent rally by Vice President Dick Cheney in Miami, only half a dozen blacks were in the audience of some 300.
One of them, Mike Hatcher, 47, said he had difficulty understanding why that was so. "I think the Republican agenda -- things like economic self-sufficiency -- is very much an African-American agenda. African-American men are traditionally very conservative, and it's very much a religious-based community," said Hatcher, who runs a nursery business.
But several church leaders in Riviera Beach, who have been exhorting congregations to turn out on November 2, said Kerry would get overwhelming support from the town of 30,000.
"Ninety-nine percent of my congregation is in favor of the Kerry-Edwards ticket," said Bishop Thomas Masters of the New Macedonia Baptist Church.
At the Island Seafood Kitchen, clients simply laughed when asked about the Republicans. "Bush ain't got a prayer here," said Spencer, as he served some of the seafood sandwiches for which he is locally famous.