Florida facts

The RealClearPolitics average of national polling has it close, President Obama 48.9, Mitt Romney 44.9. There’s the possible prospect, then, of a photo finish. And of Romney emerging the surprise winner by a disputed, blurred, fraction of a nose. And of ugliness in the event of such an outcome.

The news is atwitter with talk of minority voter suppression through voter ID requirements. Plug in the volatile factor that a narrow Romney win would displace America’s first black president after one term. Add to that the fact that some Obama backers view any criticism of the president as evidence of the presence of Jim Crow.

Meanwhile, the Internet is teeming with recollections of the sinister developments in Florida in 2000. Type the words “Bush stole election” into a search engine. You’ll get millions of hits. In some circles the question is being posed outright: Might those no-good Republican sumbeeches do it again?

Given the scent of paranoia in the air, and the possibility, at least of a razor-thin Romney win, it might help tamp down the mistrust some to review the facts — strictly the facts — of the Great Florida Election Heist Caper of 2000.

— One of the most thoroughly debunked yet tenacious myths of Florida 2000 is that a police checkpoint on election day singled out black motorists and impeded them from reaching their polling place. There was indeed a traffic safety checkpoint two miles away from a polling place, for 90 minutes on the morning of the election. The matter was investigated by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the U.S. Civil Rights Division and others. The findings: No one was detained. (Sixteen traffic citations were issued — 12 of the 16 to whites.)

— Had it not been for flagrant Republican vote-counting hankypanky, which was given a nod by the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation would have been spared the horrors of the Bush presidency, it’s said. Actually, multiple independent reexaminations of disputed ballots confirmed the Bush victory. An investigation commissioned by a consortium of papers including the Washington Post and New York Times and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the U. of Chicago concluded that Bush “likely would have won” even under the recount method Al Gore had demanded. A Miami Herald/USA Today ballot recheck concluded that Bush would have won by three out of the four recount methods the papers used.

— It’s asserted that minorities were shooed away from the polls because their names were on the list of felons barred from voting. Investigators found, however, that whites were twice as likely as blacks to be on that list. Also, the Palm Beach Post reported that 6,500 felons were improperly allowed to vote, with the overwhelming majority padding Gore’s vote total.

— It’s claimed that conniving county election offices in Florida were able to manipulate the election process in key counties in Bush’s favor. Actually, in 24 of the 25 counties with the highest numbers of disputed ballots, the election apparatus was controlled by Democrats. The 25th was controlled an independent. Republicans controlled none of these offices.

FYI.