Hightower Lowdown

When he was a U.S. senator many years ago, Oklahoma's Bob Kerr would occasionally express amazement at some bit of political mischief by declaring, "I thought I'd seen everything, and I've been to the state fair twice."

But even a state-fair sideshow could not be as bizarre as the political aftermath of the last election, when America's democratic process crashed. The upshot of the crash is that Little George Bush sits in the White House today, not so much having been elected as selected--put there by a combination of electoral mischief in Florida and a rank bit of judicial activism by five of the nine Supremes.

The media and the politicos have mostly focused on the minutiae of uncounted ballots in the Sunshine State, giving us a blizzard of stories about pregnant dimples and hanging chads, counts and recounts, claims and counterclaims about whether Bush or Gore actually won.

But what about the qualified voters who showed up at the polls all across the country, yet were not allowed to cast their ballots? Behind the chads, claims, and recounts in Florida, there's another alarming story about a long-standing flaw in our democracy--a flaw that was briefly raised to the level of public consciousness during the flap in Florida, but since has receded, receiving practically no media examination and no political action.

The dirty secret of our red, white, and blue democracy is that there is a routine, orchestrated effort by political operatives each Election Day to prevent millions of eligible voters from getting into their polling places--especially minorities and low-income folks. This is a deliberate disenfranchisement that is winked at and sometimes sanctioned by election authorities, lawmakers, political parties, and the courts. [ read more ]