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Al Swift's Commentary:
It's Those Damned Voting Machines
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When I became chairman of a little Congressional subcommittee on elections I knew about as much as any other American - or elected official, for that matter - about how our elections are administered. Nothing. I had to learn.
What I found is that vote gathering and counting is a very, very fragile process. It is put up and dismantled in about 72 hours. It is largely manned by amateurs, usually elderly women - average age over 70. It is under-funded and - until Florida - largely ignored.
Let's face it, if you are a county commissioner and you have some extra money, are you going to build a road, build a school or buy modern voting machines. No contest, right? The irony was, however, that no one really was aware of the problem, except for election officials who knew, complained and were ignored.
Then came Florida-2000 and everyone was shocked, shocked to know that bad election administration was going on. Congress, with what seemed like minimum alacrity, managed to get some legislation through and some states did a little. Now, in many jurisdictions the old, crumbling 1940s and 70s technology is gone. This is the stuff we never paid any attention to.
In its place are new, hi-tech machines and, golly, everybody is worried about them. Geez, they don't have a paper trail. Oh, how do we know if they are accurate? Gosh, people may not be able to work them. Well, friends, I'm willing to bet they will do all right.
I don't mean that they are perfect. I haven't even seen one. But I do know the old system. It was antiquated and really quite awful. The new equipment? I'm sure that some of these new machines are better than others and certain there will be some glitches. But, whatever their shortcomings, they will do a better job than the junk we depended on for decades - without a murmur.
The other thing I am sure of is that - while we never heard a whisper about the bad old way of collecting votes - we are going to hear a whole bunch of caterwauling about the new system.
Part of the outcry will occur simply because, post-Florida, we are focused on election mechanics in a way we really never were before in my lifetime. The other reason is that, if this presidential election is as close as it appears it's going to be, the two parties are going to be in the courts and on the streets fighting this thing - perhaps for weeks. And I'll make you another bet. Those confounded new-fangled, un-tried, un-proven, mysterious voting machines will be the hanging chads of 2004. They will be accused of being the cause of everything but crab grass before the two party machines get through finding new ways to question election outcomes they don't like.
Too bad they didn't pay any attention to this problem years and years ago. Florida might not have happened in 2000 and in 2004 they would have to find something else to blame.
One other thing. All the hullabaloo will make some Americans think that there is no point in voting. That's exactly what the skulldugers would have you believe. If you sit home while they are getting their folks to the polls, it makes their job so much easier. Instead, make their job just as difficult as possible. Vote. Let 'em whine and rant. Let 'em wave their writs and go to court. You make their job of trying to work the system so much harder when you just -- Vote.
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