McAuliffe promises hearings on Florida vote

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pushing an electoral reform agenda in his first full day on the job, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Sunday he would hold hearings into charges of voter intimidation and suppression during last November's presidential election in Florida.

"I have been meeting with the civil rights groups, and they have depositions from thousands of people that they have spoken to that had a problem with the voting, with the ballots, had intimidation issues where people were required to come up with three or four forms of identification," the former Democratic fund-raiser told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

A similar probe is already under way. On January 11, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission heard complaints from black voters in Florida who said they were wrongly turned away from the polls in November's presidential election.

Since the November 7 vote, many black voters in Florida have complained that they were turned away from the polls, alleging that they were intimidated by police roadblocks or found their names wrongly stricken from voting rolls. Florida voting officials have denied that any such incidents took place. The commission is scheduled to issue a final report on their probe this summer.

MESSAGE BOARD The Florida vote     ALSO State voting officials to propose electoral reforms

Election practices have come under close scrutiny because of the slim margin of the Bush victory. Bush won Florida's valuable 25 electoral votes -- and as a result the national Electoral College -- by a margin of just 537 votes, according to certified results announced by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. That result was upheld by a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which halted any Florida vote recounts.

Recount predictions

On Sunday, McAuliffe predicted an ongoing unofficial recount of Florida ballots by news organizations would show President Bush as the loser had he not been helped by the nation's high court.

"The Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes, and if they'd let the count go on, (Democratic candidate) Al Gore would have got the necessary votes," McAuliffe told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Although Gore lost the Electoral College, he won the national popular vote by just 539,947 votes.

But McAuliffe, a major fund-raiser for former President Clinton, acknowledged, "George Bush was elected. He's the president today. So we have to deal with that."

GOP responds

McAuliffe's Republican counterpart showed little sympathy. "The votes were cast legally," shot back Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, who heads the Republican National Committee.

"They have been counted properly," Gilmore added. "And we don't need to go back to all that old thing. You know what? This election was held on its proper day and counted properly and, you know, frankly, to go back now and try to undermine the legitimacy of this election is very troubling."

McAuliffe promised to stop talking about the election, but only after Congress enacts, and Bush signs, a bill on electoral reform.

"People ought to be entitled to vote and the vote ought to be counted," he told CNN. "So let's just make sure we have electoral reform."

>McAuliffe elected DNC chairman
February 3, 2001
DNC delegate calls for McAuliffe's withdrawal over 'colored' remark
February 2, 2001
Bush discusses election reforms, civil rights with black lawmakers
February 1, 2001
Lawmakers push bipartisan election reform plan
January 30, 2001
Election reform rally held in Tallahassee, without Jesse Jackson
January 20, 2001
Panel begins looking into Florida election reform
January 8, 2001

Democratic National Committee
National Association of Secretaries of State
Florida Department of State
United States Commission on Civil Rights

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