Growing concerns over voting lists and voting machines

NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. July 30, 2004 | PBS: "Of the 47,000 names on the list, only sixty-one were listed as Hispanic. A little on the low side, considering that 11% of Florida's prison population is Hispanic. But Hispanics in Florida tend to vote Republican and that's why, critics say, they're not on the list.

The machines may have already failed once. It happened this past January. Remember Broward and Palm Beach counties, home of the infamous butterfly ballot? This year, during a state legislative election, residents voted on those new touch screen machines. The margin of victory for the winning candidate was twelve votes. Yet the machines recorded 137 votes for no one. Is it possible that 137 people came to the polls for this one-race election and chose to vote for nobody?

Florida is not unique. The kind of glaring conflict of interest that didn't seem to bother Katherine Harris when she served as both the state's top election official and the head of the Bush-Cheney Campaign goes on in other places too. In Michigan — a key swing state — Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land helps chair the Bush-Cheney Michigan Campaign. Missouri is another key battleground. There, Secretary of State Matt Blunt is running for governor and actively campaigning for President Bush. He could be the one to referee both races if they're close. Democrats play the same game. In West Virginia, Secretary of State Joe Manchin is running for governor. Imagine a baseball game where the pitcher calls his own balls and strikes."