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By Victoria Barker
TODAY'S United States presidential election has been making waves worldwide, as Americans and non-Americans alike wait with bated breath to see who will emerge victorious in the race for the title of US president.
And actress Laura Dern, 41, has this message for the American public: "The only way to (be sure that) your man or your woman wins is to make sure every voice can be counted equally and carefully."
The actress, who spoke to the Asian media in a conference call recently, should know - the long-time Democrat had spent a good amount of time studying former Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris for a role in the political HBO movie, Recount.
In 2000, Ms Harris, now 51, had certified that the Republican candidate, Mr George W. Bush, had defeated the Democratic candidate, then vice-president Al Gore, in the popular vote of Florida.
That was despite the fact that only a few hundred votes separated the two in Mr Bush's favour, with thousands of votes left to be counted. The incident led to a call for a recount, which was eventually denied by the Supreme Court.
"Why I wanted to play her is complicated," said Dern, married to musician Ben Harper and a mother of two.
"I found her terrifying and troubling. But what a wonderful character to get to play as an actor," she said.
There was also evidence that Ms Harris improperly kept as many as 4,000 registered voters from voting.
She had initiated a search for matches of felons' names against those of registered voters. She removed those names from the list of registered voters, in essence disqualifying them from voting.
"It is very difficult to try and understand someone doing something that goes against all (your ideas of) morality," said Dern, who has starred in movies like Blue Velvet (1986) and Jurassic Park (1993).
She has also appeared on the politically-charged television series, The West Wing.
For Recount, she studied personal e-mail messages and letters to or from Ms Harris, which were in the public domain.
"Trying to suppress people from their right to vote is a tragedy and it should be considered an illegal and heinous act, but Ms Harris was willing to do that for her party," added Dern.
vbarker@sph.com.sg
Recount airs on HBO (StarHub Ch 60) today at 1pm and 11pm.
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