And we call this democracy?
Today's the day.
Yet, sitting in my hotel room in Florida, I am reminded just how screwed up our electoral system is. I was listening to NPR the other day and they had on a guy who reminded us that there is in fact nothing in the Constitution that grants us the right to vote. The means by which the state electors are chosen is something that each state legislature determines. In this day and age, this seems to me to be totally nuts.
In 2000, we had about a 60% turnout nation-wide. This year, they are predicting up to 75% which is a significant improvement, and yet in countries that people don't typically associate with democracy, there is upwards of 90% turnout. Some countries, it is mandatory. I recall the elections this summer in Indonesia in which voting occurred over the course of a week.
This year, we have all read of the various scandals surrounding electronic voting machines that have no paper audit trail, which opens the system up to fraud and hacking. Yet, the ATM machines manufactured by the same electronic voting machine vendors all have an option for a paper receipt. Some states, such as Nevada, a state that is steeped in electronic gaming machine technology have laws on the books requiring paper audit trails that can be used to independently verify the results. California recently decertified some 13,000 Deibold voting machines because the company lied about changes that it promised to institute following the elections in 2002.
After the disaster down here in Florida 4 years ago, you would think that the administration and congress would have been falling all ovder themselves to address the problems. Sure, they eventually passed the HAVA act, but it was too little, too late and has left us with a whole new set of problems this time around such as clearing up issues surrounding provisional balloting amongst others.
The electoral college divides the country into "battleground vs non-battleground" states, which means that candidates can ignore 75% of the country and focus their attention on 10-12 states that hang in the balance. Worse, as we saw in 2000, the winner may not need to actually win the general election so long as they win the necessary 270 electoral votes.
As the supposed home of democracy, we should be able to do better. In fact, I believe we must.
The electoral college should be abolished. This would make each individual's vote count equally. The right to vote should be granted to every citizen, and possibly to every legal resident alien (hey, they have a stake in this as well), over the age of 18 by the constitution. There should be federal laws that mandate independent paper trails. Should electronic voting be legalized, the software and hardware should be open to public scrutiny and independent audit. Personally, I don't think that we're ready for electornic voting, nor will we be in this decade. I am very concerned that there will be system failures and/or fraud this year, especially in those precincts that have no independent paper audit trail. I certainly hope that there is none, but there is simply too much potential and the stakes are so high.
The laws that define the rules for being listed on a ballot should be normalized across the country. Rather than petitions, it should maybe be determined by a primary process. We should probably also have a requirement for a majority vote. Requiring a run-off election in the event that no candidate receives a majority vote.
Finally, something must be done to address the campaign finance disaster. The airwaves belong to the public, and I believe that the networks have an obligation to offer up equal time to the candidates that is paid for with public funds. As with the U.K. and other countries, the election "season" needs to be limited. This nonsense of having year-long campaigns is completely unnecessary. Finally, there needs to be a higher bar for the supposed "free speech" that permitted the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to get away with slander.
However, the only way that we can hope that the system will be improved will be for us, as citizens, to stand up and demand it of our representatives.
Yet, sitting in my hotel room in Florida, I am reminded just how screwed up our electoral system is. I was listening to NPR the other day and they had on a guy who reminded us that there is in fact nothing in the Constitution that grants us the right to vote. The means by which the state electors are chosen is something that each state legislature determines. In this day and age, this seems to me to be totally nuts.
In 2000, we had about a 60% turnout nation-wide. This year, they are predicting up to 75% which is a significant improvement, and yet in countries that people don't typically associate with democracy, there is upwards of 90% turnout. Some countries, it is mandatory. I recall the elections this summer in Indonesia in which voting occurred over the course of a week.
This year, we have all read of the various scandals surrounding electronic voting machines that have no paper audit trail, which opens the system up to fraud and hacking. Yet, the ATM machines manufactured by the same electronic voting machine vendors all have an option for a paper receipt. Some states, such as Nevada, a state that is steeped in electronic gaming machine technology have laws on the books requiring paper audit trails that can be used to independently verify the results. California recently decertified some 13,000 Deibold voting machines because the company lied about changes that it promised to institute following the elections in 2002.
After the disaster down here in Florida 4 years ago, you would think that the administration and congress would have been falling all ovder themselves to address the problems. Sure, they eventually passed the HAVA act, but it was too little, too late and has left us with a whole new set of problems this time around such as clearing up issues surrounding provisional balloting amongst others.
The electoral college divides the country into "battleground vs non-battleground" states, which means that candidates can ignore 75% of the country and focus their attention on 10-12 states that hang in the balance. Worse, as we saw in 2000, the winner may not need to actually win the general election so long as they win the necessary 270 electoral votes.
As the supposed home of democracy, we should be able to do better. In fact, I believe we must.
The electoral college should be abolished. This would make each individual's vote count equally. The right to vote should be granted to every citizen, and possibly to every legal resident alien (hey, they have a stake in this as well), over the age of 18 by the constitution. There should be federal laws that mandate independent paper trails. Should electronic voting be legalized, the software and hardware should be open to public scrutiny and independent audit. Personally, I don't think that we're ready for electornic voting, nor will we be in this decade. I am very concerned that there will be system failures and/or fraud this year, especially in those precincts that have no independent paper audit trail. I certainly hope that there is none, but there is simply too much potential and the stakes are so high.
The laws that define the rules for being listed on a ballot should be normalized across the country. Rather than petitions, it should maybe be determined by a primary process. We should probably also have a requirement for a majority vote. Requiring a run-off election in the event that no candidate receives a majority vote.
Finally, something must be done to address the campaign finance disaster. The airwaves belong to the public, and I believe that the networks have an obligation to offer up equal time to the candidates that is paid for with public funds. As with the U.K. and other countries, the election "season" needs to be limited. This nonsense of having year-long campaigns is completely unnecessary. Finally, there needs to be a higher bar for the supposed "free speech" that permitted the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to get away with slander.
However, the only way that we can hope that the system will be improved will be for us, as citizens, to stand up and demand it of our representatives.
posted by Chris at
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
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