By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 11 — The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today opened its fact-finding investigation into alleged voting irregularities in Florida during the Nov. 7 presidential election, with three African-American residents relating their personal experiences of intimidation and with Gov. Jeb Bush (R) politely denying that he had any special contact with the Secretary of State or other elections officials before or during the election.

The commission, an independent bi-partisan federal agency, is looking into reports that voters were improperly removed from voting rolls; that precincts serving large black communities had an unusually heavy police presence on election day; and that handicapped voters and those with language problems did not receive the assistance they needed. Civil rights leaders have suggested there may have been deliberate efforts to intimidate African-American voters. The commission’s findings and recommendations eventually will be submitted to Congress and the president.

“We want to examine whether eligible voters faced preventable problems at the polls,” said chairperson Mary Frances Berry, as she opened the commission’s initial two-day meeting here. “We want to find out what happened.”

Berry said the commission has received “troubling reports” of an “inordinate number” of problems on election day in Florida. The state became ground zero in the presidential battle for five weeks after the election as officials tried to determine whether Democrat Al Gore or Bush’s older brother, George W., had won the state’s pivotal 25 electoral votes and, thus, the presidency.

The panel plans to call about 30 witnesses — all of whom, according to standard procedure, were subpoenaed and will be sworn in — during its Tallahassee session, Berry said.

Jeb Bush, who was supposedly today’s star witness, began his testimony by saying, “We’re delighted that you’re here.” Asked by commission general counsel Edward Hailes Jr. what, if anything, he had done to ensure election laws were observed, Bush pointed out that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and the 67 county elections supervisors are charged with that duty, adding, “The governor does have the moral authority to make sure not only state laws, but federal laws, are enforced.”

He denied having contact with Harris, who was one of six co-chairs of his brother’s campaign in Florida, before the election and said he first learned of alleged irregularities on the day after the election when “concerns” came to his attention about state highway patrol officers being present at some predominantly black precincts. He said he asked state Attorney General Bob Butterworth if he was going to investigate. Butterworth and the highway patrol have done so, he added.

“From my perspective, my duty was to look into the future and see what flaws could be rectified,” he said. Bush has appointed a 21-member state task force, which met earlier this week, to look into problems of procedure and technology and to make recommendations by March 1 to Bush and the state legislature.

Harris is slated to testify Friday.

Roberta Tucker, a Tallahassee resident who is African-American, told the panel about being stopped on election-day morning by a highway patrol roadblock as she approached her precinct in a predominantly black community. She said five white officers were present, and that they asked her for her driver’s license, looked at it, then sent her on her way, where she proceeded to vote.

Tucker said she immediately contacted the NAACP because she did not think a roadblock was warranted at that location. “I was intimidated by it and I was suspicious of it,” she said. “I had never seen a police presence there. I was not asked for my vehicle registration. It was election day and it was a big election and there were only white officers there.”

Willie D. Whiting Jr., pastor of the House of Prayer Church here, also told of his experience of arriving at the polls with his family and being told, wrongly, that he could not vote because he was a convicted felon. He said he was told by a voting supervisor, “You’ve been purged from our system. You’ve lost your civil rights.”

Insisting “I’ve never spent a night in jail anywhere,” Whiting said he spoke to a voting supervisor and asked if he should call his attorney. In a few minutes, the supervisor said Whiting had been confused with a Willie J. Whiting who was a convicted felon, and the minister was finally allowed to vote.

Asked how he felt when told his civil rights had been revoked, Whiting said, “I reflected on African-American history, so it didn’t feel good. I was sling-shotted into slavery, that’s how I felt.”