Fixing elections: Now, more urgent than ever
by Anonymous

In the days since the election, disgruntled Democrats have taken to the blogosphere and other portions of the public forum to claim that the presidential election was stolen this year. They are doing themselves and the country a grave disservice.

Yes, there were isolated problems, some of them quite serious. One electronic polling machine in Ohio mistakenly recorded 3,893 extra votes for President Bush. Computer glitches weren't the the only problems. Reports of registration irregularities, long lines, dirty tricks and voter intimidation abound. But none of the problems uncovered thus far have been serious enough to significantly erode Bush's 3.6-million vote margin of victory or change the outcome in the Electoral College.

That said, the 2004 presidential election did confirm the need for continuing election reforms and improvements. In too many jurisdictions, the voting systems Americans use to elect their president are antiquated and mistake prone. Equally distressing, rules regarding which citizens can vote, when they can register, how they identify themselves at the polling place, how their vote is cast and recorded and how provisional and absentee ballots are treated vary hugely from state to state and even county to county.

The country needs to redouble its efforts to upgrade the election system. That means getting money to local governments to buy new machines and train poll workers and voters. It also means creating a registration system that is uniform and fair.

Under the Help America Vote Act, states are required to produce statewide registration lists by 2006, a daunting technical feat. California is well behind in its efforts. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has not yet issued a final request for a statewide database, the necessary prerequisite for creating the federally mandated list.

Where touch-screen voting has been installed, the issue of a voter-verified paper trail needs less hype and more rational examination. Are electronic systems vulnerable to hackers, as some claim? Will the voter-verifiable paper trail that so many see as a solution create even more problems, as many election officials claim? Is it universally practicable? (In California, that paper trail would have to be printed in seven different languages.)

In this state and across the country we need to remove politics from the mechanics of elections. In 2000, it was wrong for Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the chief elections officer of the state, to also serve as chair of the Bush campaign. It was equally wrong that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was an honorary co-chair of the Bush campaign this year and that he recorded a message urging Ohioans to vote for the defense of marriage act on their ballot. In California, Shelley, a Democrat, spent federal funds intended to improve voting systems and help train poll workers for Democratic Party get-out-the-vote efforts.

Partisan activity by election officials creates the appearance of bias that is impossible to dispel and undermines public trust in the election process. Whether appointed or elected, election officials should be strictly nonpartisan. They should be required to refrain from participating in partisan activities or endorsing candidates or ballot measures.

None of the myriad balloting problems that have emerged in recent years seemed to matter when elections were less close, when one candidate or the other racked up huge majorities and, most significant, when our country was less polarized. The depths of despair among those who voted for John Kerry and loathe Bush is hard to overstate. That polarization, and the 2000 Florida election debacle, have fueled this year's unfounded and irresponsible charges of a "stolen election."

The grown-ups in the Democratic Party - the statesmen, beginning with Kerry himself - need to call a halt to this divisive and destructive diatribe. In the meantime, the counties, the states and the nation need to get about the urgent task of making our election system the best that it can be.