Well, the new voting machines had problems. I didn't even get to vote on one since they weren't working when I went to vote...I had to do an "emergency ballot." But that is par for the course. The machines are new and people aren't used to them so it is to be expected that there are glitches...hell ALL elections have glitches. It is how the glitches are worked out that makes all the difference.
In Brooklyn there is an obscure race that will be the first test case for how glitches are dealt with with these new machines and this test case has to be, MUST BE, done right. The race is the male district leader (an obscure, local Party position voted on in the primary election) race in the 50th Assembly District where newcomer and reformer Lincoln Restler is beating the Vito Lopez machine candidate Warren Cohn by a mere 20 votes...and there were glitches with the machines in this district.
This race was an important one for insiders because it is one of several races that directly opposed solid progressive reformers against the local corrupt Vito Lopez/Steve Levin. In essence it is a chance to put one small roadblock in front of the almost overwhelming corruption that the local Democratic Party (sad to say) perpetuates in Brooklyn (and even more sadly, the local Working Families Party goes along with).
That is why many of us want Lincoln Restler to win...it is one more in a series of setbacks for the corrupt machine. But we don't want it to be an unfair win, and the machine glitches mean no matter how sweet a win for Restler would be, 20 votes is not enough of a margin to be confident of. We need a recount, and how we do it will set the stage for how NY State's new voting machines are handled when there is a glitch. We need to get it right THIS time to set the correct precedent.
I think it is almost obligatory to mention (and he is probably sick of hearing it) that Lincoln Restler looks amazingly like a young Al Franken. But the parallel now is an instructive one...when it comes to dealing with election glitches, we MUST deal with them they way Minnesota dealt with them in 2008 when Al Franken ran for the Senate and NOT the way Florida dealt with them in 2000.
The goal of a democracy is to have every vote count...particularly in a close election. And the fact that this is an obscure position that few people even know about doesn't matter. It will set the precedent for all future elections using the new machines and if it is done wrong then NY State will one day be the next Florida 2000 rather than Minnesota 2008.
And let me be clear: I am calling for a ballot by ballot, complete recount done as carefully as Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (who, incidentally, is running for re-election and needs our help to maintain the quality of elections in Minnesota) carried out in 2008 and not just a random audit as some who are either lazy or stingy about democracy want to have. And I say this now before I even know what the two campaigns want. I actually suspect that Lincoln Restler's lead may quickly vanish if a proper, accurate, ballot by ballot recount is done, so it may be in my endorsed candidate's best interest to have a sloppy, lazy job of it. But that is not the CORRECT way to do it. Regardless of who it benefits, we need an accurate count of the votes in the 50th AD. We need those organizations that focused so heavily on voting machines and fair elections to focus on this one, tiny race so that NY State has its first test case for the new voting machines done the right way. We can't afford to be lazy, stingy or sloppy about democracy, even in the obscure races. And I call on both Lincoln Restler and Vito Lopez to call in proper oversight of a recount, not just leave it as a matter of political expedience as was done in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.