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The article presents information on political conditions in the U.S. during 2001. The national Pro-Democracy Convention, organized by the Institute for Policy Studies comes at a moment of more activism on voting rights and electoral reform than at any time since the 1960s. Across the United States more than 2 million presidential votes went uncounted in November 2000. Election officials actually discarded more ballots in Illinois than in Florida. Added to this are concerns about aging voting equipment, restrictive registration laws, failed implementation of the federal motor-voter law and bans on voting by former prisoners that continue to deny millions of citizens, especially people of color and the poor, full access to the franchise.