Abstract

Counting Every Vote

The article examines the Democratic platform approved this week by convention delegates in Boston, which contains strong language regarding the party's commitment to protect the right of Americans to vote--and have their votes counted. In light of the 2000 Florida recount debacle and the ensuing US Supreme Court intervention, which cost their candidate the presidency, Democrats ought to be leading the fight to fix this country's decaying electoral systems. Yet that strong platform language was not inserted by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry; it was forced in by Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. Certainly Kerry and many convention speakers have talked a lot about the need to "count every vote" this year. And the Kerry campaign and the party have worked to assure that votes are cast and counted correctly. But fundamental flaws remain unaddressed. Voter registration problems, which cost as many as 3 million Americans their right to vote in 2000, have yet to be corrected in many states. The league, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the NAACP and other civil rights groups have called for emergency moves to fund the Help America Vote Act adequately, to insure that voter registration data are collected and transferred quickly and effectively and to train election officials.