As if easily hacked e-voting machines aren't enough to stain the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, the Republicans seem to have other ways to try to steal another four years. According to an NAACP report, there's been a surge in conservative efforts to suppress the black vote.

Across the U.S., black voters are being fed false information or dealing with intimidation tactics. In Detroit, where the population is 83 per cent black, Rep. John Pappageorge commented that, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time." The DA of Waller County, Texas, told students at a majority African-American university that they weren't eligible to vote because their campus wasn't considered a legal voting address. In Florida, armed plainclothes cops are interrogating elderly black voters in their homes.

The report, available at the NAACP Web site (www.naacp.org), claims that several groups are "working now with election officials to identify and resolve potential problems."

» Scott Saxon