Quietly this decision to settle with the NAACP signals an admission by the State of Florida, and those counties named as codefendants that wide spread disenfranchisement of Black voters was prevalent during the 200 election. The same charges that were leveled by both African American residents of Florida and by the Gore campaign. Based on the narrow margin of victory state officials claim George W. Bush enjoyed, this settlement casts further doubt on the validity of those results. The original complaint filed by NAACP addressed conditions effecting hundreds of thousands of Black Florida voters state wide a group that voted in favor of Al Gore by a 93% margin. There is no clear indication that any meaningful steps have been taken to protect the rights of African American voters in the state of Florida.

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Florida Faces 2000 Election Fraud, Will Settle With NAACP
By Catherine Wilson
Associated Press | Boston Globe

Tuesday, 27 August, 2002

MIAMI (AP) The NAACP's lawsuit over Florida's disputed 2000 presidential election appears headed for a close as the state and two counties the only remaining defendants have agreed to a settlement, attorneys said Tuesday.

Joe Klock, an attorney for the state, told U.S. District Judge Alan Gold that all parties promised to file final papers by Friday for approval. Attorneys would not discuss terms of the settlement.

The class-action lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups argued voters were disenfranchised during the on Nov. 7, 2000 election; it included allegations that blacks were kept from voting in some counties.

The state and Orange and Hillsborough counties were the only holdouts in the lawsuit. Miami-Dade, Broward, Leon, Volusia and Duval counties settled earlier rather than face trial.

Provisions of those settlements included sweeping modifications to voter registration, voter-roll maintenance and polling practices. They also required counties to improve election day communications between precincts and election headquarters and in some cases guaranteed foreign language-speaking workers would be at the polls to assist voters.

After a legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, President Bush's 537-vote margin over Al Gore in Florida swung the outcome for the presidency.

The state had argued the Legislature adequately addressed problems by standardizing recount rules, eliminating punch card voting systems and allowing provisional balloting. But plaintiffs argued Florida had still not done enough to avoid wrongfully turn away voters.

A settlement would eliminate the likelihood of unflattering headlines from a trial projected to last through parts of Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election campaign.

With new laws and new voting equipment in place, the Sept. 10 primary will be the first big test of Florida's updated election machinery.