Whose Votes Don't Count?

When the U.S. Senate opens hearings on Wednesday, June 27, into the Civil Rights commission's findings from the Florida presidential election, they'll have another study to review that supports earlier findings.  Florida counties with higher proportions of black registered voters still had higher rates of spoiled ballots.

"This finding is important," says Government Professor Philip Klinkner, "because it might indicate discriminatory election and voting systems."

Klinkner's findings have been submitted to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration which will open hearings at 10:30 a.m. to examine a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding the November 2000 presidential election. They'll also explore election reform in general.

"As a result of the controversy over the findings of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, I decided to do my own analysis of spoiled ballots in Florida counties," says Klinkner. "Nonetheless, my findings largely correspond to and support the analysis done by the Commission." 

Klinkner, professor of government at Hamilton College is co-author of The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America (University of Chicago Press, 1999).

The complete study may be downloaded in pdf Klinkner Analysis and Florida Data. The data is also available in Excel:  Florida Data