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If the election were held today and the votes were counted fairly, Senator John Kerry would probably win. But the votes won't be counted fairly, and the disenfranchisement of minority voters may determine the outcome. Recent national poll results range from a three-percentage-point Kerry lead in the A.P.-Ipsos poll released yesterday to an eight-point Bush lead in the Gallup poll. But if you line up the polls released this week from the most to the least favorable to President Bush, the polls in the middle show a tie at about 47 percent. This is bad news for Mr. Bush because undecided voters usually break against the incumbent - not always, but we're talking about probabilities. Those middle-of-the-road polls also show Mr. Bush with job approval around 47 percent, putting him very much in the danger zone. Electoral College projections based on state polls also show a dead heat. Projections assuming that undecided voters will break for the challenger in typical proportions give Mr. Kerry more than 300 electoral votes. But if you get your political news from cable TV, you probably have a very different sense of where things stand. CNN, which co-sponsored that Gallup poll, rarely informs its viewers that other polls tell a very different story. The same is true of Fox News, which has its own very Bush-friendly poll. As a result, there is a widespread public impression that Mr. Bush holds a commanding lead. [more]

52% Of African Americans Believe Their Votes Won't Be Counted. The Wall Street Journal (10/22, A4, Harwood) reports in its "Washington Wire" column, "A 52% majority of African-Americans worry it's 'very' or 'somewhat' likely their votes won't be counted, while 20% of whites do. But blacks express higher election interest. Journal/NBC pollsters Peter Hart and Bill McInturff say Kerry's 83% support may understate his final total; Gore got 90% in 2000. Bush's party worries more about fraud. Some 44% of Republicans say it is very or somewhat likely that Americans who are ineligible will vote anyway; only 28% of Democrats voice that concern. Voters overall split, 48%-47%, on the likelihood that computer technology will bring more corruption or miscounting." [more]
Fighting Voter Suppression in Florida [more ]