Politics from the pulpit on the campaign trail

By HELEN TUNNAH


Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And don't forget to vote for John Kerry for President on November 2.

It's Sunday morning, and Women's Day, at the New St Paul Tabernacle Christ in God Church in middle-class Southfield, Detroit.

Pentecostal worshippers, mainly African-American women dressed in crisp white or cream suits, some with fabulous matching hats and high-heeled shoes, rock in the pews to the Daughters of Debra gospel choir. It's just another day on America's presidential campaign trail.

"We're concerned about this election - aren't we, aren't we," an animated Bishop Phillip A. Brooks implores his congregation.

"Winners" visit this church. Bill Clinton came 10 days before he was elected President "and we prayed for him", says the Bishop. "Thank God - we have leaders who are concerned, and who share our concerns, and who are passionate about the welfare of the people - and not just a certain segment of the rich."

John Kerry's Democratic running mate, Senator John Edwards, is sitting, grinning, next to Bishop Brooks this morning. The same Edwards who is a pro-choice liberal, whose abortion views surely must be at odds with most of the conservative congregation.

Instead he is feted. After all, to black America at least he's not a Republican. And it will be jobs, healthcare and education that determines how the swing state of Michigan votes, not morals or the war on Iraq.

Besides, Edwards knows how to win over this audience. "You know, the Bible is such an important part of my life. It is an important part of John Kerry's life."

Campaigning from the pulpit would be extraordinary in New Zealand - for both the church and the candidate - but in America's confusing, complicated presidential election, just about anything goes.

This is a country spending US$3 billion ($4.48 billion) on its November 2 presidential elections - or at least the 51 mini-elections that its Electoral College system demands. The 50 states plus Washington DC vote separately for President (see panel).

Each state even has its own choices of presidential candidates, a raft of systems for casting votes and even a range of opening hours for polling booths. Some states let ex-prisoners vote, others don't. Some will accept late ballots from their soldiers in Iraq, while others' pleas to George Bush to let them count late votes have failed.

And it's not only the presidential race which is attracting record levels of campaign spending.

Judges, those non-partisan defenders of the law and the constitution, are according to Business Week magazine, accepting donations from business and civil rights groups to help their election campaigns.

One judge has even run attack advertisements against his judicial rival.

The swing state of Michigan has not been spared the hoopla, although the saturation television advertisements of six months ago have eased off, perhaps as Kerry's lead in the state consolidates.

The road from downtown Detroit to New St Paul's, perhaps explains why the Democrats are doing better in this economically depressed city. The inner suburbs are in decline, notable only for the rubbish, the rusty car wrecks and dilapidated houses - some in such bad repair the windows are literally falling from their rotten frames.

When the white and black middle classes fled race riots, and worsening violent crime, they left behind some of the country's poorest blacks. Over the years poverty hasn't been alleviated, illiteracy is immense and it's hard to work out just how many voters in this city of almost one million people remain disenfranchised.

Voting turnout downtown is as low as 25 per cent in some areas, according to Wayne State University, and that does not count those who fail even to register to vote.

Compare that to the 60-80 per cent turnout of registered voters in the comfortable, upmarket suburbs of Grosse Point, east of the inner city.

Rapper Eminem made famous the symbolism of the "8 Mile" divide between wealth and ethnicity in Detroit, and Grosse Point's equivalent is a street called Alter Rd.

On the wealthy side of that split from downtown lie multimillion dollar properties, with expansive front lawns and sweeping views across Lake St Claire to Canada.

It's here that Bush-Cheney lawn signs are pegged out each morning (and taken in at night because of vandalism) and where the American flag flies proudly.

At the local Republican Party volunteers' office, a steady stream of visitors is greeted by a smiling, life-sized cut-out of George W, complete with little sheriff's badge (the Democrats' office in town has a Bush punch-bag).

It's not a flashy, high-technology operation here. More like a simple New Zealand electorate office, staffed by volunteers trying to keep up with the demand for bumper stickers and the lawn ornaments, and who will be out door-knocking locals come Saturday.

"More people will trust their neighbour than trust a television ad," party stalwart and recent political science graduate Andrew Delmege says.

Businessman Andy Owens has popped in for two lawn signs. He repeats the clarion call for the local Republicans when he says he is voting for Bush because he stands up for free enterprise.

He thinks the poor in Michigan aren't doing so badly, better than people in France or Germany, and he's not interested in paying higher taxes to entrench dependency.

"Our people on welfare, they have a TV, a car, air-conditioning - and still I have to work harder for them. I don't like that," he says.

Delmege says the small business vote is core Republican support - the Democrats have the labour vote sewn up, especially in this auto industry state which has lost 260,000 jobs since Bush took office. In an echo of one New Zealand issue the Republicans are also hoping that a ballot paper which asks voters if they think marriage should only be between a man and a woman will help roll out conservatives on election day.

In neighbouring Illinois, jobs and the economy are also the No 1 election issues. This is a state which Chicago board of elections chairman Neal Langdon boasts has one of the best voter turnouts in the country.

Other democratic nations might not think it's that impressive. Chicago will have about 1.4 million voters registered by November 2. Another half million people will not register, so won't be able to vote.

Of the 2 million eligible voters in the county, fewer than half will eventually take up their constitutional right (although people here argue it's equally their right not to vote).

Take a look at Chicago's ballot paper, and it's not hard to see why people suffer voter fatigue before they even reach the polling booth. The ballot is 12 pages long, and there are 149 votes to cast.

In Michigan, a voter can simply tick one box backing candidates from one party across the whole ticket. Not so in Illinois.

And in Chicago they use a traditional punch card system. On November 2, they'll be electing a President, Senator and Representatives, county clerks and a staggering 70 judges.

Luckily, or not, voters who spoil their ballot can get a new punch card and start all over again.

Democratic-leaning Illinois is at least being spared the television advertising swamping Michigan and other battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Instead there's only a few scattered billboards in conservative rural areas - the simplest espousing a pro-Bush, Aussie-sounding slogan, "Boots or Flip-flips".

Illinois also enjoys a propaganda-free environment because its leading Senate candidate has an extraordinary 50-point lead over his hapless rival.

Democratic darling Barack Obama oozes charisma with an understated yet Hollywood style unfamiliar in New Zealand. Exotic - he's the son of a Kenyan goatherder and grew up in Indonesia - gorgeous, and with a touch of the movie star about him, Obama hasn't needed to bother himself with detailing his policy positions. He will almost certainly soon be only the third black Senator elected in America's history.

Leaning on the foul-line fence, Rich Dubona hasn't joined the crazed rush around Obama campaigning at a remote baseball park in Bolingbrook, 40km south of Chicago.

On a stunning autumn day when any normal person would be at home mowing the lawns, 300 people have joined Dubona for a glimpse at a man tipped to be President one day.

A glimpse is about all they get, when Obama arrives an hour late and delivers a 15-minute speech of cliches.

Dubona is unemployed. He lost his truckdriving job of 23 years when the electrical switch company he worked for moved production offshore.

Resting by him is a Veterans for Kerry-Edwards placard, although Dubona never went to Vietnam. But he wants John Kerry to bring America's troops home from Iraq.

"What really breaks my heart is when you see the 1000 kids that have died," he says. "He's wasted all those lives. That's what I really hate [Bush] for. He's just killing us.

"We're in bad shape, we're in really bad shape. And they let bin Laden go, to thumb his nose at us."

"They'll catch him just before the election," Bolingbrook local Mark Lowery interjects, "if they don't have him already."

He wasn't the only one eating his union-sponsored free hotdog who is convinced that Bush is keeping bin Laden for his October campaign surprise.

It's the popular view. It's what talkback hosts are predicting.

* Helen Tunnah's visit to the US was paid for by the State Department

Who picks the president?

* The United States elects its President through an Electoral College system, dating from 1787. This means the public vote does not directly elect the President; instead, the President is elected state by state.

* The 50 states and Washington DC are allocated electoral votes according to how many Senators (all states have two) and Representatives (determined by population) it has. Each state nominates special "electors" who, after the November 2 election, will (usually) back the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state.

* This election, George Bush or John Kerry will need 270 of the 538 electoral college votes to win.


Disunited States

HOW THE STATES DIFFER:

States, not the federal government, decide who can vote, when and how. They also have to pay for the election. They have different rules as shown with these examples

ALABAMA:

Voters have to be aged 18 before an election

They can register to vote 11 days before the poll

Convicts must have their right to vote restored

Polls open 8am-6pm

9 electoral college votes

ILLINOIS:

18 on election day or before

Must be registered 28 days before the poll

Can't vote if still in jail

Polls open 6am-7pm

21 electoral votes

MICHIGAN:

Must be 18 before the election

Must be registered 30 days before the poll

Can't vote if in jail

Polls open 7am-8pm

17 electoral votes

WASHINGTON STATE:

Must be 18 before the election

Must be registered 30 days before the poll

Convicts must have the right to vote restored

Polls open 7am-8pm

11 electoral votes