Dear friends,
As Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida (Tallahassee), I've seen
our democratic voting process mishandled and manhandled by a few elected
officials more committed to winning office than to democracy.
No major news reporter has worked as doggedly to expose this story than Greg
Palast whose reports for BBC first laid bare, for example, the purge of
innocent Florida voters as "felons" before the 2000 election.
Palast has just released a new book, Armed Madhouse, with the provocative
subtitle: The Scheme to Steal '08 and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of
the Class War.
Like his prior bestseller, the Best Democracy Money Can Buy, this reporter
has taken on several tough investigations, from Iraq to Venezuela. But for
me, the chapter on manipulations of the 2004 vote and the threat to fair
elections in 2008 is simply must-read information.
I may be prejudiced: I play a role in the book. In late 2004, Palast's BBC
crew asked me to look at lists of African-American voters obtained from
Republican campaign headquarters files. There were thousands of names and
addresses -- including page after page of soldiers shipped overseas. It turned
out, as I suspected, that this was a "challenge" list (Palast found 70,000 names
in Florida alone) -- meant to prevent these citizens from voting. These
voters, Palast was told by the GOP's spokeswoman, had suspect addresses. First
class letters, marked "Do not Forward," were mailed to these voters and the
returned letters were to become the basis of a challenge -- including the
returned letters of soldiers shipped to Iraq.
There were other games. Palast includes a scam against college-age voters
-- who thought that they were signing petitions in favor of allowing the
medical use of marijuana. Their signatures were then copied, forged onto
registration documents and the victims -- including my own step-daughter -- found
themselves registered as Republicans. Worse, because they were now registered
in two places, they could have lost their vote altogether.
Palast notes that official figures show the "uncounted" vote (spoilage and
rejected ballots) in the USA reaching 3.6 million in 2004. It could be 5
million 2008. And the games are already going into play during this 2006
midterm election cycle.
Palast's prose is highly charged -- and highly funny -- but nonetheless
astonishing in its important revelations. In Britain, his stories appear at the
top of the nightly news. But in America, this award-winning journalist can
only reach us through the Internet. Now, thankfully, we have his book, with
the full and frightening story of the dangers to democracy.
The book is non-partisan, taking a tough, and often hilarious look at
politicians of both parties. Most important, he gives us facts for action. Our
right to vote, and our right to know when it's threatened, is a non-partisan
issue.
I urge you to get a copy of Armed Madhouse right away and join Greg Palast
on his nationwide book tour taking place right now. To see when he is in your
city, go to _www.GregPalast.com_ (
http://www.gregpalast.com/)
/s/ Ion Sancho
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