Day 116: Florida Freedom Summer of 2024:  There but for fortunate, go you or I….

COVID-19 should have --but apparently did not--make us more conscious of people we have stored (sic) out of sight or whose limited mobility prevents them from going to the polls, or even to mailing boxes..    That issue alone could make them a powerful voting bloc for a population which has been disserved.

Jails on Nov. 8, 2022 will be filled with people who have not been convicted of a crime, but who have lost the so-called right to vote, though they may be registered because they could not afford bail.  Miranda warnings don’t include notice of that opportunity.     

Adults in hospitals including mental facilities, group homes, hospices, and nursing homes generally will not be asked whether they are registered to vote..  Too many veterans who will be remembered on the 11^th are forgotten on Nov. 8, 2022.

Volunteers delivering meals on wheels might not think of helping people to cast ballots if they are registered, or to get them registered in the first place.  Charities don’t seem to include assurance of assistance for adults in need of help to vote.

At 87, with limited mobility, I was reminded yesterday morning that my confidence in getting to the polls on Nov. 8, 2022, may be misplaced.  It would have helped to have such thoughts before time for voter registration expired, but as I am sure some of you may know our minds don’t necessarily work that way.

Besides, we here are focused on 2024, not the mid-terms.

Indeed, with my excellent memory becoming less so each day, I wondered whether people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s lose their right to vote faster than their right to worship or speak out.

Hey, there are absentee ballots.  Why didn’t I think of that?  I could but I am sure there are like-minded folks whose mobility limits even that opportunity.  Hence, the earlier reference to mail boses.

We as usual of course are talking primarily about the poor who are more likely than the rest of us to find themselves to be in places, including our own homes, without timely access to the voting machines.   They may not have car transportation.  They even may no longer be licensed to drive.

Having such strange notions, I started calling people who should know about such things, including my Supervisor of Elections and the ombuds people who advocate for long term care facilities for answers.   They were of limited help.

I learned for example in my state, Florida, nursing home administrators could ask the Supervisor to have a staffer go to the facilities to assist in the voting.  I was not comforted to learn that in the pas , two or three did ask for such assistance but for some reason only one has do so, this time.  I haven’t bothered to check but I am sure there are far many more eligible places which have never exercised that opportunity in my area alone. See attached for Florida’s statutory provision and examples elsewhere of court action to validate ballots which have been denied locally.  Under that law, an individual registered voter can trigger that opportunity for the facility by notifying in timely fashion the Office of the Supervisor of Elections.

The issue of limited accessibility to vote does arise in the minds of our crime fighters.  Why? In in addition to providing turkeys on Thanksgiving, Boss Tweed types in the olden days sent out agents to round up ballots for those unable to make it to the polls.  The helpers often assisted with the filling out of the precious documents, even though such aid is illegal.

Orlando, FL got its first and so far only black mayor Ernie Page, when its current Mayor Buddy Dyer, an attorney, was accused of using one of my former clients in such illegal activities.  Dyer was out for five weeks, until the matter was cleared up by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

  (Orlando does not recognize Ernie’s accomplishment, perhaps because he later was convicted of using his elected position as City Council member to intimidate a contractor into providing kickbacks.)     I tell this story, because I became a featured player in an Orlando Weekly account of those events, “Dyer’s Best Shot,” when I still had some credibility, though the writer didn’t think so.  https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/dyers-best-shot-2260040

I am sure by now some of you realize that there are enough such votes out there in these populations to affect the outcome surely of some local races, and perhaps even some state positions.  There’s still some time for example for Gainesville run-off candidates to gather some extra votes.  Just be careful to advise your campaign workers not to influence unduly the prospective voters.

Gabriel Hillel, for Freedom Summer of 2024