W-T-Florida: People Who Watched 2000 Presidential Recounts Having Deja Vu
Ron Fournier and NPR’s Don Gonyea talk about “dredging up horrible memories” on Detroit Today.
This week, there’s a recount on in Florida. No, you haven’t fallen asleep and awakened in the year 2000… this is current-day recount. It will determine whether a full recount will be held for the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races.
For many people, this invokes sour memories of hanging chads, court cases, and bitter outcomes.
But is this just what has to be done to be sure the vote-count is right, and the winner — the true winner — is identified.
On Detroit Today, Stephen Henderson speaks with two reporters from Michigan who covered the 2000 recount in Florida.
NPR’s Don Gonyea say those recounts up close, and is headed back to Florida this week to report on the new recounts. Ron Fournier, now president of the Truscott Rossman political PR firm, covered the 2000 recounts for the Associated Press.
“Thank you for dredging up those horrible memories,” says Fournier.
Henderson also speaks with Lester Spence, associate professor of political science and Africana studies at Johns Hopkins University, about the fact that Florida this month also overwhelmingly supported a measure that gave convicted felons the right to vote after leaving prison. That means about 1.4 million Floridians who have been barred from voting will now have the same rights as everyone else at the voting booth. Among black men, 40 percent were affected by the felon disenfranchisement law.
Click on the audio player above to hear those conversations.
