The Ballots of 1 Million African-American and Latino Voters Likely to be "Lost" in 2004 Presidential Election

Interview with Greg Palast, BBC investigative reporter, conducted by Scott Harris

Until the 2000 presidential election, most Americans saw their nation as a model of democratic ideals where one-person-one vote was valued above all else. But with memories still fresh about the Florida election scandal -- where tens of thousands of votes were eliminated by defective paper ballots and allegations of deliberate disenfranchisement -- U.S. voters are looking warily at the coming 2004 presidential election

In reaction to the voting scandal, Congress allocated billions of dollars to upgrade the nation's voting equipment, but growing questions about electronic voting machines' reliability and vulnerability to manipulation have slowed progress on modernizing the U.S. electoral system. As November approaches, state, county and municipal governments are scrambling to improve the mechanics of voting, hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election, which saw the Supreme Court install George W. Bush as president, although he had lost the popular vote by half a million ballots.

In the midst of the tumultuous 2000 election recount in Florida, BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast uncovered documents which established that Florida officials had purged more than 57,000 registered voters, a majority of them African Americans, Hispanics and likely Democrats, off the rolls in advance of the November vote. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," who explains why he believes reform legislation enacted after the scandal-ridden 2000 election, could result in disenfranchising up to one million minority voters in this year's presidential ballot.

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter with BBC television and the London Observer newspaper. Read his columns online at www.gregpalast.com. His book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," was recently updated and re-released by Penguin.

Related links:



"Vanishing Votes," by Gregory Palast, The Nation, April 29, 2004

"California Panel: Don't Use Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machines," by Jim Wasserman, Associated Press, Apr. 22, 2004

"File Sharing Pits Copyright Against Free Speech: Voting Machine Giant Diebold Seeks To Silence Critics," by Jon Schwartz, The New York Times, Nov. 3,2003

"Electronic Voting's Vulnerability to Tampering Could Undermine Public Confidence in Machinery of Democracy," Interview with Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting, Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century," conducted by Scott Harris, Between The Lines, week ending Oct. 17, 2003

"Florida's 'Disappeared Voters': Disfranchised by the GOP," by Gregory Palast, The Nation, Jan. 18, 2001

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