Blacks, Latinos rocking the vote

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Democrats are using rock concerts here to whip voters into a frenzy, then directly march them to the polls.

More than 3,000 black and Hispanic voters yesterday rallied at the Jackie Gleason Theater, chanting “our vote counts” and “never again” while accusing President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, of disenfranchising thousands of minority voters here during the 2000 election.

“This is going to be the biggest election of our history and we will be there to shine the light on any efforts to keep people from voting,” said Michael Moore, director of the Bush-bashing film “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

After four hours of rehashing the 2000 election, the audience was led by Mr. Moore, Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe and radio host Tom Joyner in a march to City Hall, where most concertgoers participated in early voting.

“I want the Bushes out,” said Helena Singletary, 46, a cosmetologist who said she re-registered this year after nearly a decade of not voting.

Many black voters and Democratic Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Jimmy Morales said the motivation behind the thousands of newly registered minority voters stems from the 2000 contest.

“I know some people like to say it was a Democratic fabrication, but it was real, and we have done everything possible to reverse it” Mr. Morales said.

Several references also were made to an incident discovered in Broward County this week in which elections supervisor Brenda Snipes, a black woman, had to defend her office against attacks that it misplaced 58,000 absentee ballots.

Mrs. Snipes said the blame lies with the U.S. Postal Service for any ballots lost and that in many cases the mail was simply slow in getting to residents. However, she said her office mailed nearly 12,000 duplicate ballots overnight to residents who requested them.

Mr. McAuliffe boasted that 3,200 of the 10,000 election lawyers working for the party nationwide on Election Day — “at least one in every key precinct” — would march on Florida Monday.

“We’re doing this to make sure every one of your votes is counted,” he said.

Mr. McAuliffe said he is confident black voters will overwhelmingly vote Democratic on Tuesday, despite reports the party is losing support from the voting bloc. To be sure, Mr. McAuliffe stumped with former presidential candidates the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson here yesterday.

“[T]hey assured me that we will get the similar numbers for John Kerry that we got in 2000 for Al Gore,” he said. “But then we have to make sure we produce and live up to those promises that got people excited in the first place.”

Mr. McAuliffe commented on a new study by the Joint Center on Political and Economic Studies that said Democratic registration of younger blacks has increased 20 percent since 2000, but nearly 15 percent of older blacks have switched to the Republican Party.

“Many of these new younger voters are coming out because they want to see a change,” he said.

Mr. McAuliffe, who is white, defeated former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson for the Democratic Party chairmanship to the ire of several black politicians. He said he understands the anger from the black community about his party’s presupposition of their support.

Black Republicans at the rally said Democrats are race baiting and hiding behind their poor record on issues important to the black community.

A Democratic committee handbook was leaked earlier this month with sections detailing that its members should make charges of voter intimidation even when there is no evidence by taking “pre-emptive strikes.”

C.J. Jordan, president of the Black Republican Leadership Council, said the black community cannot afford to continue to support one party that takes advantage of them and ignore the other party even while it is “reaching out through deeds and not rhetoric.”

“President Bush has empowered our rural and urban communities through his faith-based initiatives; minority homeownership is up nearly higher than it has ever been and so is [Small Business Administration] lending for black businesses,” she said.