While saying they no longer dispute the results of the presidential election, the party leaders want a circuit judge to take another look at what happened to voters in their county.
Claiming the court still has the "authority to address wrongdoing in the conduct of the election" even though it is over, the motion asks Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in Tallahassee to investigate allegations that there were disproportionately high numbers of motor-voter registration irregularities and denial of additional ballots in precincts with mostly black voters.
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., a plaintiff in the suit, said she wanted to make sure nothing like this ever happened again. She said she was helping organize a meeting in Washington on Jan. 4 to talk with black leaders and voters about the election.
She said her goal was to improve voter education so that people know what to do when they get to the polls next time, and to "make sure that their votes count, and they voted for the person they wanted to vote for."
A similar meeting for the state of Florida will be held in Orlando on Jan. 6.
Republican strategist Bruce Barcelo of Jacksonville said he agreed that irregularities, if they exist, should be looked into, but otherwise, people needed to move on without what he labels "racial profiteering."
"What the public has to be scared of and careful of, I think, is when politicians on either side say, 'I'm going to protect you against those white people over there, or I'm going to protect you against those black people over there,' " he said.
The original suit, filed Dec. 5, complained that too many ballots had been invalidated in precincts in black neighborhoods. The suit was dismissed two weeks ago by Judge Lewis.
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