Election Thoughts - Past And Future

Almost every election, reporters interview someone who didn’t vote and the reason why is often “my vote won’t count.”

 

EVERY election, the one just past being no exception, races ARE decided by one vote; both this time on the federal level as well as local. Yup, someone’s headed to Congress because one person voted.  And here in Kentucky, we had one race end in a tie, decided by a coin flip.

 

Enuff of history, and the miserable turnout, about 46%, let’s talk about all the problems the US had; from not enough ballots, to jammed machines, to one polling place that didn’t exist (it was foreclosed on and padlocked before the election!) to not enough machines causing long lines, to not enough election workers showing up, to machines with NO paper trail in 3 states (and thus no way to check on fraud or human errors!) to some political chicanery but no real evidence of fraud.

 

That said, why aren’t our elections better run???

 

After the”hanging chad” debacle of 2000, Washington promised us help. We got some more money (not sufficient) and some new electronic machines (not always easy to operate and again, some without a paper trail---such as right here in Fayette County!!!) and as I write almost 2 weeks later, some races still have not been called, and I don’t mean just Florida.

 

BTW, we have a small race here next year for governor. And the nation has one in two years for the top job.

 

What can be done?  A lot, and while Washington must help with more $$$, and some UNIFORM voting rules for federal races, let’s talk about the Commonwealth.

 

1---get rid of all machines that do not have a paper trail. The Herald-Leader reports that means FayCo..and the city seems to have some surplus funds which could solve this problem (plus grant money from state and US sources.)  Let’s do it! And if we can’t get simpler machines with paper trails by next year, let’s go back to paper ballots, read by machines, instead.

 

2---pass legislation that whenever the Secretary of State is a candidate, he/she must turn over the duties of overseeing elections to someone else. Let’s not have the disgrace of what happened in Georgia happen here. We have been warned; let’s get ahead of the curve.

 

3—take a good hard look at early voting..which has some advantages, but also some drawbacks. Do NOT go in for mail ballots as some states have, which I suspect is too open to fraud. Do consider in person voting over several days or even shifts or longer hours—and gear up for that.

 

4---consider AVR, as several states already have. Basically Automatic Voting Registration is where if you go to any state office for any matter, you are or can be registered to vote then and there.

 

5---plan NOW for a non- or bi-partisan commission of experts who will draw the lines for all state/federal voting districts when the new census figures come out, more and more states are going this way, Kentucky needs to as well.

 

and, above all,

 

6---join the movement to end the Electoral College and elect the President by popular vote. Then, one Kentucky vote will no longer mean less than a vote in Tenn., or Ohio, or Indiana.  ALL votes will be equal!

 

I'm just sayin'...