From Greg Palast, reporting on the BBC.
A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan – possibly in violation of US law – to disrupt voting in the state’s African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.
Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign’s national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called “caging list”.
It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.
An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: “The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day.”
A Google News search for “caging list” shows few US media sources are running this story. Why aren’t WaPo and NYT on this? (The LA Times is!) The BBC is the most reputable news source on the planet yet US media is mostly ignoring this story.
It doesn’t stop there, though.
The Florida Republican neo-fascists (yes, the word does apply here) are up to even more slimy tricks, as Palast details in his Hapers Magazine article
Congratulations, Mr. President!
Florida’s computers have already counted thousands of votes for George W. Bush
Before one vote was cast in early voting this week in Florida, the new touch-screen computer voting machines of Florida started out with a several-thousand vote lead for George W. Bush. That is, the mechanics of the new digital democracy boxes “spoil” votes at a predictably high rate in African-American precincts, effectively voiding enough votes cast for John Kerry to in a tight race, keep the White House safe from the will of the voters.
I doubt they will get away with it again. There will be millions of angry people in the streets should they try. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.