DOJ investigating charges of intimidation of black voters in Florida
AP reports: The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether Florida law-enforcement officers intimidated elderly black voters as part of a probe into March's Orlando mayoral election.
A top attorney with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division revealed the investigation during a hearing Friday in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press reported. A Justice Department spokesman confirmed it Friday night, though he said he could offer no other details.
The controversy began after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement started interviewing voters in response to a complaint by Ken Mulvaney, who lost to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in the March 9 election. Dyer avoided a runoff with Mulvaney by just 234 votes out of more than 24,000 cast.
After the election, Mulvaney, a registered Republican, accused Ezzie Thomas, whom Dyer paid $10,000 to rally voters in the city's predominantly black precincts, of manipulating absentee ballots in Dyer's favor. Dyer is a Democrat. That charge led FDLE officers to interview about 50 voters, an FDLE spokesman said.
Thomas, president of a nonpartisan group in Orange County that encourages minority voting, then charged that some voters on Orlando's west side are afraid to vote this fall because of the interviews. -- Feds to determine if FDLE intimidated black voters (AP via OrlandoSentinel.com)