Despite eight years of experiments in improving Florida's notorious election system, Florida's secretary of state Kurt Browning had these discouraging words for a New York Times reporter:
Mr. Browning said that with voters already skeptical, election supervisors were likely to continue to recite a familiar prayer: "We don’t care who wins, just let them win big."
The stories have come out steadily over the last eight years. Florida counties tried touch screens, then touch screens with paper receipts, then scanned paper ballots- all of them problematic.
In a June election under the current system, Palm Beach County lost 697 votes, then later found them. More recently, Palm Beach County lost 3500 ballots in between an August 26 election and a recount. After scouring voting locations, they were eventually found, right in the counting room.
More scandal below the fold...
On Friday, Brad Merriman, an assistant county administrator, said that the 3,478 missing ballots had finally been accounted for. Asserting that the ballots had never been lost or tampered with, Mr. Merriman said they had been overlooked by hurried employees trying to meet a state deadline for the recount.
The contested August 26 race was for a nonpartisan judgeship- imagine the effects of a similar scandal this November.
With the Palin bump (not her belly), McCain's campaign has surged in the polls, coming annoyingly close to Obama-Biden in key states. A close election is likely at this point, and continued problems with voting machines and systems are rampant.
I am terrified.
Check out this Wikipedia page for more information on obstacles that faced voters in 2004, including voter roll purges, voter suppression, and the continued use of "hanging chad" ballots.
Personally, I wish more states would choose the vote by mail route that Oregon has taken, which reduces the cost of elections, puts ballot delivery in the hands of federal employees (postmen) instead of untrained volunteer poll workers, gives more time for thoughtful consideration of candidates and issues, and avoids many of the problems associated with polling places (broken machines, intimidation, long lines, etc).
With only 49 days left until the election, we can only hope and pray that voting discrepancies are few and far between, and that Barack Obama wins by the landslide that he deserves. And Barack, if it's close, don't you dare pull a John Kerry and concede before we FIND and COUNT every vote.