Friday, August 31, 2012

IN HAEC VERBA: July 12, 2012 Complaint to AG Eric Holder re: Election Supervisor Refusal to Allow City of St. Augustine Early Voting Location

Dear General Holder:
1. Please begin a civil, criminal and administrative investigation -- in conjunction with the FBI and a federal grand jury -- of the repeated racist refusal of the St. Johns County, Florida Supervisor of Elections to allow early voting anywhere within the 12 square miles of our nation's oldest European-founded city, St. Augustine Florida, during our 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 primary and general elections.
2. Despite repeated respectful requests and moral suasion for weeks from citizens, elected officials and our St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee -- and the helpful compromise suggested weeks ago by our County Attorney, Patrick McCormack -- Respondent ST. JOHNS COUNTY ELECTION, FLORIDA SUPERVISOR of ELECTIONS (SoE) VICKI OAKES (OAKES) adamantly refuses to allow early voting at the St. Augustine Public Library for the 2012 General Election. Why? Respondent SoE OAKES is a very partisan Republican in a county dominated by Republicans, a county with a long sordid history of Jim Crow segregation, whose actions helped President Lyndon Johnson persuade Congress to enact our 1964 Civil Rights Act. The majority of voters within city limits are Democrats.
3. The closest early voting location to the African-American communities of West Augustine and Lincolnville is several miles north of town, next to the Sheriff's office, along US 1, which lacks proper sidewalks, reportedly resulting in deaths and injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists.
4. Florida has cut nearly in half the number of early voting locations, to which DoJ rightly objects.
5. With the number of days of early voting reduced, OAKES should have been open to and friendly about adding additional early voting locations. Instead, OAKES has been overt in her hostility and animus to early voting within city limits. While recently holding.a voter registration drive dozens of miles away in another county, outside the ordinary course of business and her constitutional role, OAKES is insouciant and insolent about the early voting rights of residents of St. Augustine.
6. Respondent SoE OAKES' private attorney has not responded to my telephone messages.
7. OAKES has been rude, deceptive and other-directed, irrationally rejecting County Attorney Patrick McCormack's excellent compromise suggestion of the Library (as opposed to my initial suggestion of St. Augustine City Hall, to which OAKES raised parking space questions).
8. Please investigate the SJC SoE and its eight-year old St. Augustine early voting discrimination voter suppression scheme, pursuant to our 14th and 15th Amendments, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, 18 U.S.C. 241 and 243, 42 U.S.C. 1983 and 1985 and the Voting Rights Act.
9. For weeks, OAKES has emitted pretexts, excuses and even an undated belated justification for the SoE's wretched eight-year record of "redlining" and discriminating against our city, once called the "most lawless city in America" by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964. We've made great progress in our city, but OAKES does not respect African-American rights. Please investigate. Please empower the DoJ Community Relations Service (CRS) to help persuade OAKES to allow early voting at the St. Augustine Public Library for the 2012 General Election.
Let justice be done. Let freedom ring. Let every vote count.
Thank you in advance for helping solve this problem now.
With kindest regards,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-377-4998

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