Reviewing the various new posts from various blogs and news sites, it seems that many of the problems dealing with elections in the United States still exist. In this election year, though, it seems to be amplified by the record turnout appears nearly everywhere.
Shortage of paper ballots, broken machines, missing registrations, relocated polling places all seem to be popping up in much of the news so far today along with reports of long lines in many places especially in urban areas with heavy percentages of African Americans.
I just do not get it. Other western countries have managed to conduct national elections with far fewer problems and lot less controversy. Problems like these will always lead to speculation that an election will be tainted or even stolen. If it happens every election cycle, it will deflate people's trust in the system and lead to less participation in the civic process.
The problem is that every state sets its own standards for elections whether for local, state and federal offices. Different registration requirements, different ways of entering a ballot and so on. The HAVA act addressed some of the issues but it appears to be unevenly applied across the country.
I think the first step of making elections run more smoothly in the United States is to for the federal government to be main registrant of voters in the country with responsibility delegated to the states. I do not know why private organisations are left with the responsibility to register voters. Let enumerators go out and register people much like a census with followups in the mail system. For those not found by this way or are now in different election precincts, have same day registration at the polling station. This should remove all accusations of voter registration fraud and remove the process of arbitrary voter roll purges.
Secondly, have all voting machines across the country be one standard. I favor a touchscreen system which creates a optical scan ballot which can display for the voter who he voted for. This will avoid situations like here in North Carolina where people who voted straight party ticket but did not realise that the presidential pick was a separate selection. Additionally, this removes and misapplication of a vote from who you picked and what is actually registered. This also makes recounts easier.
No more pure touchscreen votes which does not allow for recounts or any hacking of tallying systems. People will know who they voted for. No more lever systems or strange ballots.
Of course, paper ballots must be available along with provisional ballots to ensure that votes are collected. Which leads to another point: more machines are needed for voters. It appears that the long lines are due to the fact that a limited number of machines are available and not properly allocated to precincts on an equal basis. It may be a pain for cities and counties to store machines that are used at best every two years but at least for democracy's sake, it is what is required. A ratio of one machine per 150 voters should be adequate with a reserve of machines of 1 per 1000 voters to handle breakdowns and unexpected voter turnout.
Finally, and this is probably more difficult to apply in such a large country like the United States, a standard time of poll closures by time region. We have polls closing from 6:00pm to 12:00am. One of the main concerns of the television networks in calling the presidential winner too early is the potential to depress voting in the western states where the polls have not closed. Perhaps it would be better if the nation was divided into two or three regions for elections with a set of polls closing at 9:00pm EST and another set at 12:00am for instance with a dividing line being along the Mississippi river. No state can have separate closing times for different parts of the state. Select one zone or the other. This will also help too in getting more people to vote at later hours when people can vote after work.
It sounds so simple and not expensive to implement especially if the federal government is paying for it but here we are in 2008 with the same problems as we have had for three elections now. A bit of common-sense is in order and perhaps Congress can address this early on in the new session of 2009.