Whatever happens at the polls today, you can count on one thing tomorrow: lots of post-mortems about disastrous problems with voting machines.
We thought that there’d be at least one positive outcome from the Florida 2000 debacle: Americans everywhere would realize how broken our elections are, and they’d rise up and demand change. The change, alas, has yet to happen. One reason is that it’s too easy, after election day, to return to our normal routines — until we wake up two years later for another “Groundhog Day” experience as we realize that, oops, the system is still a mess.
The other reason is that the party in power since 2000 has had no wish to fix the problem. Generally speaking, when fewer people vote, Republicans are happy. When Republicans control local governments, they’re happy to see chaotic situations in which their local officials can oversee recounts and such. Historically, the Democratic party has been the party of a wider franchise; Republicans spend their time looking for ways to make voting harder.
So let’s see if we can agree, now, as we head into the polls, on what the new Congress should do once we’re done electing it: Let’s get serious about improving our elections. They should be held on weekends, for starters. If they are going to use modern digital technology, we need paper verification, and the systems should be based on peer-reviewed, open-source software that can be independently appraised for its security and fairness.
Elections are run at the state and local level, so mandating this sort of thing nationally is quite difficult, but Congress tends to find ways to enforce its will when it needs to. When you control the federal purse, you control a lot. It shouldn’t be that hard for Congress to say to a state: Fix your voting mess, enable democracy, or we cut off your cash. What could be more important?
BONUS LINK: Legal guide for bloggers and citizen journalists on Election Day. Know your rights (though the laws on issues like photography at the polls are oddly vague).
[tags]elections, u.s. elections, voting machines[/tags]
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