July 27, 2004

Former Vice President Al Gore's speech before the Democratic National Convention last night reminded all of us about the sanctity of voting and the fundamental premise that every vote counts – and must be counted – in America. Unfortunately, four years after the debacle in Florida, threats of voter suppression remain real and opportunities for foul play during the upcoming election have not been addressed.

• Conservative leaders in Michigan have already threatened to suppress African-American voting in Detroit. Last week, a GOP lawmaker and co-chair of the Bush-Cheney '04 Michigan Veterans Leadership Team called for his party to "suppress the Detroit vote," – clear code for suppressing black voters. Rep. John Pappageorge (R-MI) revealed his motivation stating: "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election."
• State officials in Florida developed a flawed database of supposed felons to purge minority voters and county officials remain free to purge voters at will. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced it would ask the Department of Justice to investigate whether Florida's aborted use of a flawed database to remove felons from the voter rolls was a deliberate attempt to block some voters from casting ballots." The Miami Herald reported that this year's list "included people – many of them black Democrats – who have had their right to vote restored." County officials in Florida are still free to purge voters based on their own formulas that have yet to be revealed.
• Voting machines across the country have no paper trail, making recounts impossible in close elections. Thirty percent of the nation's voters, in 675 counties, will use electronic voting machines this year – many of which do not provide paper backups to ensure a proper counting of votes. Without these paper records, recounts in disputed elections will be almost impossible, increasing the likelihood of purged or miscounted votes.

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