A Repeat Of Florida Recount Debacle -- On National Scale?
The Washington Post has a long front-page article this morning which says that some experts fear that the problems plaguing local vote-counting across the country could trigger a repeat of the Florida 2000 vote-counting debacle -- albeit on a national scale:
In a polarized political climate, in which elections are routinely marked by litigation and allegations of incompetent administration or outright tampering, some worry that voting problems could cast a Florida-style shadow over this fall's midterm elections."We could see that control of Congress is going to be decided by races in recount situations that might not be determined for several weeks," said Paul S. DeGregorio, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, although he added that he does not expect problems of this magnitude.
As the article notes, the problems are being compounded by secretaries of state who are partisan and have designs on higher office (see Blackwell, Ken), and until this and other problems are dealt with head-on, it's unlikely that any kind of wholesale reform will happen anytime soon.
There's an overwhelming, in my view, argument for the Federal Elections Commission's role to be massively expanded: precisely to restore confidence in elections in the country, at least at federal level.
If an election is being conducted for a body representing the entire nation, then the means of casting a vote to that body should be the same, wherever one lives. If they insist, states could still choose to elect their own positions using whatever dodgy system their politicians choose, but how likely is it that they'll go to the expense of opting for a system different to the one required for national elections? Not a very high priority for spending, in my view.
Of course, until we take politicians out of the electoral process entirely: removing their right to draw their own district boundaries being the most spectacularly dodgy example, then people are perfectly reasonably not going to have much faith in the validity of their vote.
September 17, 2006 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink