Activist: ‘Blacks are afraid of voting machines’

The level to which Democratic Party politics will sink has become officially disgusting. On the eve of the historic debate between President Bush and Sen. Kerry, the anti-Bush machine is firing up the rhetoric and, at the same time, insulting African Americans. Sadly, old methods are being employed to turn the political tricks.

Joanne Bland, who is the director and co-founder of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Ala., was quoted on Wednesday as saying, that computerized voting machines would “terrify” African-American voters because they are “afraid of machines like that.”

Bland was also quoted, following her visit to Florida, as saying:

I got the hell out of there Saturday, and I would suggest you do, too. Until we get rid of those Bushes [President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush], we’re going to have a problem in Florida.

As you can well imagine, a talk show that stems from New York City might have listeners that would be offended by such statements. And mine were.

We finally convinced Ms. Bland to come on the air with us. To her credit, she categorically denied every quote in the story. Every quote except the ones she would not comment on, that is.

She also denied having any connection to the Institute for Public Accuracy, for which the story cited her as a spokeswoman. Any connection that is except for the fact that the Institute for Public Accuracy (a well known leftist “groupthinktank”) had asked her to do interviews on their behalf. This organization which she has “no connection to” does have her bio on its website as a spokeswoman for them. And in that bio are a couple of extended quotes about why she believes that disenfranchisement “could have occurred” in 2000, among black voters.

To her credit, during my interview she denied, or refused to comment on every item in the story.

I don’t believe her, partly because of the nervousness in her voice as she answered my questions, partly because she refused to answer some questions, and partly because of what her quotes (had they been allowed to stand unchallenged by clear-thinking people) would have implied in the circles in which she runs.

There is no question that in some circles the line has been retold again and again that the president stole the election in 2000, and that it was the suppression of the black vote that caused him to win.

It just so happens that Jesse Jackson has been re-employed by the Kerry campaign just this week. And just this week, the “Bushes are trying to steal the election by hurting black people” campaign mantra is now re-emerging. It also just so happens to mark the re-ignition by the Kerry campaign of the debate on whether or not young black men will be drafted secretly after the election. CBS even repeated this in yet another example of disgraced journalism, but promptly got caught and spanked for it by Internet bloggers.

Efforts to get African Americans to hate President Bush will not be successful this time for one big reason: African Americans – at least many of them who live in large urban metros have had a chance to examine him and decide for themselves what they think of him. Bush got less than one vote in every 10 from the black community in 2000. This time, I predict he will get upward somewhere of three in 10 or four in 10. And if he does, he will win at least 4 more states that Gore took in 2000.

Let me just say that I also do not believe that Ms. Bland even believed the quotes for she is attributed. But I do believe it is possible she said them. Because to plant doubts – based on racial bias – as to the veracity of computerized voting machines gives the recount lawyers one avenue of recourse. And Kerry and company have promised extended legal fights if the election is close.

And of the dozens of African-American callers who flooded my New York City airwaves in response to Ms. Bland, it appears many African-American families in New York are not only “not afraid of computers,” but many of them own computers in their own homes.

It is long past time for the silly race-baiting politics of the Democrats to come to an end. And I am hopeful that the statistics on how the voting public does vote this election will prove that these methods are as outdated as the “Reverends” who push them forward.