Election2000: Students skip protest for class

Students skip protest for class

By SHELBY OPPEL

TALLAHASSEE -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson had hoped to lead hundreds of marching college students to the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to protest Florida's presidential election. But a more routine commitment -- final exams -- kept the crowd small at a "prayer vigil" on the courthouse lawn.

Students at historically black Florida A&M University, where Jackson rallied supporters Monday, wanted to focus on schoolwork after a series of marches and sit-ins this year at the Capitol, said Andrew Gillum, student Senate president.

"They're being taxed a lot," said Gillum, 20. "Our professors are tired of it."

So Jackson, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Florida lawmakers, repeated their demand for a federal investigation into voting irregularities in Florida's minority communities to about 200 people, about half of whom were journalists.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said caucus members were to meet with Justice Department officials later Tuesday.

Jackson compared protesters' efforts to those by civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., in 1965. As in Selma, the protesters in Tallahassee were "fighting resistance to our right to be counted."

While the rally was billed as non-partisan, Jackson and others weren't shy about their allegiance to Vice President Al Gore.

About Texas Gov. George W. Bush's claim to the presidency, Jackson said: "A victory lap without victory is just jogging."

"On Nov. 7, more people went to the polls voting for Al Gore than for George W. Bush," added U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat.

Law enforcement officers from three agencies, who anticipated at least 1,000 marchers, blanketed the block around the Supreme Court. Except for a couple of hecklers, the hourlong rally was spirited but peaceful.

Maya Bajwa, 30, listened to the speeches as she waited for her husband to circle the block in his car. The Bajwas, Canadian citizens who live in New Orleans, stopped to observe the events as they returned from a trip to Tampa.

"Part of me thinks it's democracy at its best," Bajwa said, "and politics at its worst."