In 2000, the presidential election was marred by poorly punched ballots in Florida. Four years later, it was malfunctioning machines in Ohio. With record numbers of voters expected yet again, the fundamental question remains whether the US’ embattled election machinery will stand up to the pressure.
This year’s unprecedented primary turnout has already exposed cracks in the infrastructure. In Texas, lines stretched for hours and ballots ran out. Voters in Virginia were told to submit slips of paper — which were later disqualified — when ballot deliveries didn’t arrive and overwhelmed poll workers in Washington hid electronic machines because they were afraid of the contraptions.
“Right now, election officials probably identify with Sheriff Brody in Jaws, who having seen the great white shark for the first time turns to his fellow passengers and remarks, ‘We’re gonna need a bigger boat,’” electionline.org director Doug Chapin said in a recent study of voting problems.
Primary turnout broke records across the country — in Delaware and the District of Columbia, the number of voters tripled from 2000; in Florida that figured doubled. The only state with less than 50 percent turnout was New Hampshire, which lost some of its luster as the first primary state when most of the country moved theirs to early in the year.
Though nearly all election officials had taken extra precautions for yesterday — some had ordered a paper ballot for every registered voter as well as increasing the number of electronic machines — substantial fear remains that polling places won’t be able to stand up to millions of voters who want to choose between Democrat Senator Barack Obama, who could become the first black president in American history, and Republican Senator John McCain.
“The ultimate test of democracy is full voter participation,” said NAACP president Ben Jealous. “States are not completely grasping what they’re in for. In Virginia, the governor won’t even agree to printing out additional paper ballots, even though they started passing out sheets of paper during the primary because they ran out of ballots.”
Foreshadowing what could be a litigious ending to this year’s election, the NAACP filed a federal lawsuit in Virginia, demanding more electronic machines in minority neighborhoods, and extra paper ballots in case those machines are tied up by record turnout. A judge denied the request on Monday following a hearing.
Major voting problems disrupted the 2000 presidential election when poorly punched ballots and huge turnouts ignited a volatile, weekslong recount that ended with a ruling by the US Supreme Court that resulted in a narrow victory for President George W. Bush. In 2004, lines that stretched 14 hours long and malfunctioning electronic machines created havoc in Ohio, which eventually gave Bush a second term by a margin of about 119,000 votes.
Yesterday, nearly half the country would be casting ballots on a new system, the majority of them using paper cards read by optical scanners.
When it comes to election lawsuits, and there have been scores filed since the 2000 meltdown, the most likely litigious issue in this election is provisional ballots.
People at the polls who believe they have been wrongly denied the right to vote — people whose names don’t show up on registration lists, for example — have the right to cast provisional ballots.
Rules on counting those ballots sharply differ from state to state.
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