It's not groundbreaking stuff, but whether it's simply wrong or just muddled, it's always interesting to see issues discussed here percolate and wind up in the 'legitimite' press. Last week was a ghastly column by
Anne Applebaum abut ATM-style voting. Today is a 'summary of the issues' op-ed in the
Boston Globe.
ARE AMERICANS who voted for George W. Bush dumb, ignorant, and reality-challenged, or does neither "red" nor "blue" America have a monopoly on smarts? My column last week, asserting that voters across the political spectrum are likely to harbor misconceptions that are favorable to their side and damaging to the other, elicited a lot of responses.
Some claimed the likely Democratic misconceptions I listed -- that Bush tried to allow more arsenic in drinking water, that Al Gore would have won the recount in Florida in 2000, and that one million African-Americans were disenfranchised -- weren't misconceptions at all. Bush did initially suspend a new regulation issued by President Clinton lowering the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water; media organizations did find that a recount of all Florida ballots for which voter intent could be determined would have put Gore ahead; and an estimated one million votes cast by African-Americans went uncounted due to ballot spoilage.
The first two assertions are technically correct but misleading. Bush suspended all of Clinton's last-minute regulations for review, standard procedure when the White House changes political parties; the new arsenic standards were subsequently approved. In Florida, both the recount requested by Gore and the one authorized by the Florida Supreme Court would have given Bush the edge.
What about race and uncounted votes? Last week, I wrote that John Kerry claimed that one million African-American votes were uncounted in Florida; while his statement was made during a stump speech in Miami, he was apparently referring to a nationwide figure.
Aside from the fact that the racial breakdown of ballot spoilage is based on estimates and projections, what Kerry said was that one million African-Americans were "denied the right to exercise their vote." This presumes intentional disenfranchisement -- something that even the US Civil Rights Commission, in a report harshly critical of the conduct of the 2000 election in Florida, did not conclude. So, if many Kerry supporters believe that minority voters were systematically disenfranchised, they are no less misguided than Bush voters who believe that evidence of weapons of mass destruction was found in Iraq.
Also today from Maine is a more local story about election reform (hint: local is good):
WATERVILLE -- A group of Waterville-based activists is voicing concerns about the 2004 presidential election and the integrity of the American electoral system.
Members of Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice, picking up on a tide of similar concerns raised nationally, are alarmed by reports of election mistakes in key battleground states and are worried about the rise of electronic, paperless voting machines, which members say are too vulnerable to shenanigans or even fraud.
You don't need to agree with any of this... my point is that the issues of election and voting reform are out there, making their way up the food chain, and when you see it on Leno and Letterman, you know it's an issue the politicians can get in front of and claim as their own. Meanwhile, I see little in the Ohio papers that hasn't already been presented here. If your local media is presenting stories or op-eds or editorials on election reform, especially in Ohio or Florida, post it here.