In an effort to attract more early voters to the polls in Florida – a battleground state that was riddled with complaints of voting irregularities in 2000 – syndicated radio personality Tom Joyner is leading a “March to Vote” rally in Miami Beach Friday morning.
Immediately following Joyner’s Southwest Airlines Sky Show at the Jackie Gleason Theater, Joyner and film stars Jennifer Holiday and LeVar Burton, and talk-show host Star Jones will join voters in a march to early voting booths in the Miami Beach City Hall.
A marching band and at least 1,000 voters are expected to participate in the rally, which takes place just four days before the Nov. 2 general election.
Derrick Brown, program director for Miami radio station WHQT-FM 105, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that Joyner’s stature and genuine concern for the community will go a long ways toward fending off a repeat of the 2000 presidential election fiasco in the Sunshine State.
That year, George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes. That victory helped Bush eke out a slim Electoral College win over Democrat Al Gore. But that victory came amid complaints that many black voters were unfairly and illegally denied the right to vote. Some voters were also stopped from casting ballots because they were erroneously listed as felons. Confusing ballot designs caused many to select more than one choice for president.
In Duval County, for example, some 27,000 ballots were discarded because voters chose more than one candidate. Most of those ballots were cast in predominantly black precincts.
Bush, whose brother Jeb is governor of Florida, became president after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the recount of votes 36 days after the hotly contested election.
Recent polls show that this year’s race between Bush and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, is a tossup in the state.
“There is still some bitterness about what happened here in 2000, and what Tom is doing is going to energize folks to get out early and make a difference with their votes,” said Brown, whose station is a major supporter of the march.
“We, in Florida, had already been excited about the early voting. It was something that we needed. And we got even more excited when we realized it was important to Tom to bring his Sky Show here less than a week before the election.”
Several prominent Democrats are expected to attend the rally as well. They include U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla.; U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn.; and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
“In terms of the state of Florida, clearly one of Tom’s driving forces is to bring national attention to the vote during early voting,” said Neil Foote, director of communications for Reach Media, the parent company of the Tom Joyner Morning Show and BlackAmericaWeb.com. “This is very important to him.”
The “March to Vote” rally takes place one week after Joyner’s national, six-city effort to galvanize black voters in Houston, Las Vegas, Little Rock, Ark., Nashville, Tenn., Orlando, Fla., and Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
