Add now to the Florida election mystery – beyond the butterfly ballots and the chad comedy in Palm Beach County, beyond the FBI investigation into reports of pre-punched George Bush ballots in black and Jewish sections of Miami, beyond the stories of black voters’ names being disappeared from the electoral rolls and accounts of missing ballot boxes and pre-cooked absentee ballots, add to all this Sunshine state politics.
This is the state, after all, that brought us the Elian drama. From Cuban Miami to the Gold Coast, from citrus country and Disneyland to the Deep South Panhandle and the Redneck Riviera, Florida has a history now of racial and ethnic tension and election fraud earned through voters like Manual Yip. Mr. Yip died in 1993 at age 75; he was buried in a paupers’ grave, but still managed somehow to vote in Miami’s mayoral election three years ago. Getting to know Florida is this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Lance Dehaven-Smith, professor of Public Policy at Florida State University and co-author of the Almanac of Florida Politics 2000
Lucy Morgan, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times
Tom Fiedler, Editorial page Editor of the Miami Herald
Edna Buchanan, crime reporter for the Miami Herald.