WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections throughout the developing world, predicted on Monday the U.S. presidential vote in Florida would be as flawed as the 2000 poll there.
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"The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair," said Carter, whose Atlanta-based Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections worldwide.
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But Carter said many of the recommendations were not implemented due to inadequate funding and political disputes.
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Four years ago, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris was also the co-chair of Bush's state campaign committee and her successor, Glenda Hood, was showing the "same strong bias," said Carter.
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Several thousand ballots of blacks were thrown out on technical grounds in 2000 and a "fumbling attempt" had been made recently to disqualify 22,000 blacks -- likely Democrats -- but only 61 Hispanics who were probably Republicans, as alleged felons, he added.
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"It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6343264

Well America is a joke now in all honesty, how can America call herself a democracy when this abhorrent scenario or political manipulation of votes, and of voters themselves (disproportionably minority and democratic) in one of the closest states can be allowed to happen? This is what is expected to happen in Indonesia (which is now the world’s second largest democracy, behind India), but not in the US. Is it possible that Indonesian democracy is actually better then American? Is America even really a democracy?

No the USA is a republic, we vote to have people represent us in a vote (look up electoral college) let us remember the first great republic: Rome: it was filled with corruption and eventually gave way to a emperor/dictatorship, perhaps the same fate is destine for the USA?

Republic's need democracy to work...America still relies on democratic processes to discern who is in power. America describes itself as the "greatest democracy" and I will hold her up to that account.

It’s ironic that former President Jimmy Carter would bring this up in 2004.
Where was his voice in 2001, 2002 and 2003?
It sounds political to me.

If the truth be known – all of Florida’s election problems occurred in Democratically Controlled Voting precincts. That includes the infamous Butterfly Ballot:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/02/MNGTK8I8IE1.DTL

It sounds political to me

Then it was not common knowledge that these grossly undemocratic practices were taking place. Carter is simply stating that truth, there should be international inspectors in Florida discerning whether it was a fair vote or not. America cannot (as shown in 2000) be trusted with its own democracy…

Perfection is what we strive for - it is seldom achieved - even in democracy.

Granted...but why just let it slide and do nothing about it? It’s not an insurmountable problem, especially not for a nation, as rich, and relatively educated like the US.

They got rid of the Butterfly Ballot - that's a start.

I agree - much needs to be done - work in progress I guess.

Knowledge is the cornerstone of democracy, it is so easy to lie, deceive, and mislead people that it will always have problems. No political/economic system is perfect.
Democracy is the worst system in the world, except all the other ones =]

I am not stupid enough to think that American democracy is perfect; it is a never-ending work in progress. We sometimes have setbacks and sometimes have breakthroughs

"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." --- Josef Stalin