From registration fraud by the community group ACORN to long lines at early voting sites, we’ve seen all sides of the vulnerability of our election system. How do we restore and preserve its integrity, especially at a time when so many people have become disenchanted with it?
Our leaders are unlikely to change their habits or the rules they lay down for others unless pressured to do so by the people. If corruption exists, it is in part because we permit it, either by silence, by inattention or by misunderstanding. Ignoring or refusing to recognize the problems of election fraud that plague many parts of our country will ensure that it spreads and grows more toxic.
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This election is shaping up as potentially more chaotic than the 2000 Bush versus Gore debacle. With over 15,000 lawyers working for both parties, 2008 could become a litigation nightmare. Provisional ballots, voter ID laws and laws in some states that allow people to register and vote on Election Day may all become breeding grounds for an electoral meltdown.
Provisional ballots — given to people whose names aren’t on registration lists at polling places — could become the equivalent of Florida’s hanging chads. A tug-of-war over these ballots may be inevitable in key states where the margin of victory is no greater than the number of provisional ballots cast. Like Florida in 2000, both campaigns would send armies of lawyers to any closely contested state to watch and argue as every single provisional ballot in every jurisdiction is reviewed and a determination is made by election officials as to whether it should be counted.
How likely is this to happen? In the 2004 presidential election, there were 668,408 provisional ballots cast in California, 27,742 in Florida and 157,714 in Ohio. If the race between George Bush and John Kerry had been closer and Kerry had chosen to contest the results, the battles over provisional ballots in those states could have delayed the outcome for months.
The most often discussed proposal to limit fraud and irregularities at the polls is a requirement that all voters show photo ID before voting. Poll after poll shows the concept is popular and easily understood by the American people. Yet this is a bitterly fought reforms by groups that claim it will disenfranchise people without an ID. But, as Jimmy Carter’s former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young points out, few Americans can function fully without a photo ID today. Getting them a free one so they can vote would help them join the American mainstream.
If we don’t invest in better election procedures and equipment as well as voter education, we may pay for our failure by turning Election Day into Election Month through a new legal quagmire: litigation. You can bet that in a country of 170,000 polling places, some problems are inevitable. Some 20 percent of Americans will be using controversial new electronic voting machines that will become a magnet for lawsuits. But over 55 percent of Americans will use optical-scan paper ballots, which while simple to use are easily manipulated. Who will monitor the lawyers if they turn American politics into another breeding ground for endless litigation?
Independent, nonpartisan groups, as well as candidates and parties, should be authorized to appoint poll watchers to observe the election and the vote tabulation. All vendors who supply voting machines and computer software should be required to undergo investigation for financial solvency, security and integrity. Clear rules for identifying what constitutes a vote and procedures for contesting an election result must be developed by each state.
Should “anything goes” continue to be the ballot byword, the nation may wake to another crisis even bigger than the 2000 Florida folly.
John Fund is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a regular contributor to FOX News. He is the author of “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.”
