The Rev. Jesse Jackson called yesterday for the painstaking recount of Florida votes to continue, saying Jews and blacks were treated unfairly in the ballot bungle.
Speaking to a group of about 200 people, mostly blacks and Jews, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, the civil-rights leader said the two groups were “disenfranchised” by the disputed vote in Palm Beach County.
Jackson, a Democrat and a Gore supporter, called on Vice President Al Gore and GOP candidate George W. Bush to agree on “one simple democratic proposition.”
“Step out of the courts and count the votes of the people, honor their will,” he said. “Be open, free and fair.”
Election officials in Palm Beach County have decided to recount by hand every vote cast in the jurisdiction.
But a federal judge in Miami will hold a hearing today on a lawsuit filed by Bush to stop the hand recount there and in other Florida counties.
Jackson claimed Jews and blacks appeared to have been “targeted” in Palm Beach County, where many voters said they were confused by a poorly designed ballot. Election officials in the county are Democrats.
More than 19,000 ballots were tossed because they were marked for two presidential candidates. But there were reports that some of these rejected ballots had been handed in by voters who realized their mistakes and were given new ballots to cast.
More than 3,000 votes were cast in the heavily Democratic area for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.
Aides to the vice president claim many of these votes were cast by Gore voters who misread the ballot.
While Jackson urged the candidates to stay out of court, he said a judge should decide what to do with the thousands of nullified and potentially miscast ballots.
“The most absurd [solution] would be to put the votes in the trash can,” he said. “We do not put people’s dreams in the trash can.”
A larger pattern of discrimination has also been alleged by black voters who said they were harassed and refused access at numerous polling places across Florida.
Jackson said if America ended up with a “right-wing” Congress and White House, “50 years of social progress could be unraveled in one year.”
“The most humble people’s fingers are in the dike, trying to stem the flood,” he said.
NAACP head Kweisi Mfume said at the Miami forum that the civil-rights organization would give the Justice Department evidence this week about racial discrimination at the Florida polls.