John Ashcroft's First Year as Attorney General

Widespread concern over voting irregularities across the nation following last year's election recounts in Florida prompted Ashcroft to add additional attorneys in the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division. Ashcroft also announced he would create a new voting rights initiative to include a new senior counsel position within the department's civil rights division.

But Justice Department attorneys have not become involved in any of the lawsuits alleging voter disfranchisement in Florida or elsewhere other than to review changes to Florida's law as they are required to do. They have instead focused primarily on investigating charges made by Republicans of voter fraud in St. Louis, where Ashcroft sent in monitors to oversee a special election in March. (In 2000, Ashcroft was defeated in his bid for reelection to represent Missouri in the Senate.)

In June, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released its report on irregularities in the Florida vote and recommended that the Justice Department investigate possible violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and requested a meeting with the attorney general. To date, that meeting has not occurred, though a Justice Department spokesperson has said the Department is investigating 12 claims of voting irregularities in Florida.

In August, the Justice Department temporarily blocked three sections of the new elections law passed by Florida's Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, asking for proof that the changes would not create more obstacles for minority voters. JoNel Newman, the attorney in a private lawsuit against the Florida law, was heartened by the action, saying, "We are certain that with more information, [Justice] officials will reach the same conclusion that we have - that some of these electoral reforms push minority voters back into the past rather than moving us all into the future."63

However, in December, the Justice Department approved all but one section of the law. Joseph D. Rich, head of the voting rights section, withheld approval of the most controversial component, the creation of a statewide voter registration database to purge convicted felons from voter rolls. Florida's existing database was the center of many voter complaints during the 2000 election, many of whom were mistakenly told that they could not vote because their names were on a list of felons.64