Ballot Design and Efficiency Still Shaky for Upcoming Elections
The New York Times reports today on the introduction of new voting technologies and an array of potential problems in the upcoming presidential elections -- a year in which millions of new voters will be coming to the polls. Election officials say about half of voters this year will use new machines or a system different from the last presidential election, while some states face shortages of poll workers and money. Meanwhile, a new study finds that confusing or poor ballot design in 2002, 2004 and 2006 was the primary cause of many undocumented votes and procedural mistakes.
A key question here -- besides accurately determining who wins -- is whether these problems shake public confidence in the election system. None of the major polling organizations seem to have examined this during the primary season, but a Gallup poll taken just before the 2006 midterm elections found that public confidence remained fairly steady; 47 percent said they were "somewhat confident" that votes across the country would be accurately cast and counted and 28 percent said they were "very confident." A majority (66 percent) said they were "very confident" that votes at their own facility would be accurately cast and counted.
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All true, BUT registration problems--and subsequent use of provisional ballots (22% of which were rejected in Ohio 2004)--are likely an even bigger problem. Florida 2000 promoted what is in effect a red herring, chads. The REAL issue is COUNTING all the votes that are cast.
--John Burik, CASE Ohio
Unfortunately, having a total of 75% of the people somewhat or very confident that the votes will be counted fairly and accurately is an indictment on the voting process. That ratio is unacceptable. Voting is the essential foundational aspect of our representative democracy. We have had 17 amendments adopted into the Constitution since the Bill of Rights was included. Six of those amendments dealt directly with voting.
We are experiencing a great re-awakening in our political process. Ineffective and corrupt voting activities will disengage our people and need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Unfortunately, if the lack of judicial action on the deliberate disenfranchisement of Florida's nearly 20,000 voters in 2000 is any indication, the current power structure/status quo has no real interest in ensuring democracy is truly effective in this country. Hopefully, we will place new people in Congress, the White House, and eventually the Supreme Court who recognize the true value of the liberties entrusted for each of them to defend. Continuation of the current view that supports the unitary power of the Executive Branch of government has been and will be a recipe for making the Constitution irrelevant.
Michael Powell
Faculty Adjunct, Estrella Mountain Community College
U. S. Constitution and Issues in American Politics courses.
michael.powell@emcmail.maricopa.edu
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