? Another 1 million "provisional" ballots and about 526,000 absentee ballots went uncounted nationwide. In Ohio, for example, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell ? a staunch Bush supporter ? changed the rules to toss those ballots even though voters were told that they would count after their voter registration was confirmed.
? Then there were the people who never got a chance to vote, because their names never were entered on to registration lists or were mistakenly removed. Others never got to vote after being forced to stand in lines for hours because urban areas did not have enough polling stations or equipment while suburban precients had a surplus of polling booths.
There is one common thread all of the above. Black voters overwhelmingly back Democratic candidates in any given election, so Republicans have diligently tried to suppress the black vote through the aforementioned methods.
This is not a wild-eyed conspiracy theory. All of this happened and is well documented. That's why Kennedy's story is so important and is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of our democracy. It deserves more attention, not because it will change the outcome of the 2004 election, but because these same tactics will almost certainly be employed again in the Congressional elections in November and the 2008 presidential election.
"American history is littered with vote fraud," wrote Kennedy. "but instead of learning from our shameful past and cleaning up the system, we have allowed the problem to get worse. If the last two elections have taught us anything, it is this: The single biggest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system."
The Republicans have shown that they will stop at nothing in their quest to stay in power. The mainstream press wants to keep pretending that we have free and fair elections in this country, but it is unwilling to confront the reality that if people don't have a reasonable belief that their votes will be counted accurately, the whole idea of government by the people falls apart.
It's time that all Americans take this issue seriously, and demand elections that are honest and fair.
? Then there were the people who never got a chance to vote, because their names never were entered on to registration lists or were mistakenly removed. Others never got to vote after being forced to stand in lines for hours because urban areas did not have enough polling stations or equipment while suburban precients had a surplus of polling booths.
There is one common thread all of the above. Black voters overwhelmingly back Democratic candidates in any given election, so Republicans have diligently tried to suppress the black vote through the aforementioned methods.
This is not a wild-eyed conspiracy theory. All of this happened and is well documented. That's why Kennedy's story is so important and is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of our democracy. It deserves more attention, not because it will change the outcome of the 2004 election, but because these same tactics will almost certainly be employed again in the Congressional elections in November and the 2008 presidential election.
The Republicans have shown that they will stop at nothing in their quest to stay in power. The mainstream press wants to keep pretending that we have free and fair elections in this country, but it is unwilling to confront the reality that if people don't have a reasonable belief that their votes will be counted accurately, the whole idea of government by the people falls apart.
It's time that all Americans take this issue seriously, and demand elections that are honest and fair.
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