November 26, 2000

Proposed Vote System Reforms Need Careful Thought

While we wait for the vote counting process to reach a conclusion anent Bush/Gore, it is worthwhile to consider reforms that could avoid the political hogwallow in which we now are mired.

First, we should insist that citizens of the most advanced nation in the world should be accountable for following simple directions. Kindergarten tots are capable of putting a round peg in a round hole. First graders can connect dots with ease.

Next, we should consider a 24-hour election day, followed the next day by counting. Exit polls should be outlawed – the secret ballot is the corner stone of honest elections.  

The methods of marking and counting ballots should be uniform. Certainly the punch-card ballot is a relic destined for the trash bin. The spectacle of chads-and-dimples counting in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties is too ludicrous even for the Three Stooges.

Charlotte County is among the 18 percent of U.S. counties utilizing an "optical scan system" for counting votes. Judy Anderson, supervisor of elections here, installed such equipment years ago.

It is astonishing that the system is not more widely used. Supermarket  check-out cashiers have been using it for many years. So have college-bound students taking Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT).

Paper scan ballots have an oval ring in front of each candidate’s name. Instructions on the ballot are to "blacken" the oval of choice with a soft lead pencil furnished in booths.

After the polls close, the ballots are rushed under seal to the elections office in Punta Gorda. Within minutes, the ballots are whisked through the counting machines.

Laser scanners recognize any black mark within an oval – fully or party blackened; an X, check mark, initial or dot. Double votes – a mark for two or more candidates in the same race – are ignored. Recounts do not vary more than one ballot per million.

Liberals and minorities are agitating for a "direct popular vote" of the president in the same manner as for all other elected officials in a "democracy."

As has been pointed out many times, the United States of America is not your dictionary democracy. Our genius is a "republic" wherein representatives are elected by popular vote to make laws for us.

To avoid the tyranny of popular excitement – a whiff of which we see in the present Florida vote tallies – authors of the Constitution wisely created an Electoral College. Its function is to shield the election of a president and military commander-in-chief from momentary whims.

Americans in 1785 were acutely aware of the disasters that arise when military power resides in a paramount leader able to inflame popular passion. The dangerous mix is evident today in scores of unstable governments.

The Constitution specifies that each state shall have "electors" equal in number to that of House and Senate representatives. The college of 538 electors meet Dec. 12 in their respective state capitals to choose a president/commander-in-chief.

A secondary advantage of the Electoral College is ensuring that sparsely populated states will have some representation in government.

It should be noted in the present election ruckus, that a few mega-cities like Miami, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston and San Francisco would run the country by direct popular voting.

Forty-eight states award "winner take all" electoral presidential votes. This may seem ruthless, but it is able to get things done. Imagine the gridlock if there were four or five other political parties jockeying for power in Congress.  

There is some sentiment for a "compromise" system of choosing electors by congressional districts -- such as now employed in Maine and Nebraska.

They award the first two electoral college votes in the same way as other states – by giving them to the candidates who win the most popular state electoral votes. The remainder are awarded by congressional district -- one electoral vote to the winner of each district.

In this way, some Democrats and some Republican electoral votes are cast for the national presidential ticket. This "proportional representation" is popular in many foreign countries. Nonetheless, it results in a legislative body of a half dozen political parties constantly shifting coalitions and making decisions difficult.

Computerized voting -- by key-stroke or finger-print touch – is a frequent suggestion but has not been well thought out. Hackers able to disable the Pentagon and CIA computer systems would have great fun on election day. Crashed computers and electrical power disruptions would delete votes never to be recovered.

When all is said and done, the Constitution pretty much works as it was intended. We tinker with it at great peril.

PARTING SHOTS

Gore counters are coming! One if by hand, two if by see.

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 "If you torture a ballot long enough it will confess," says former Sen. Alan Simpson.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers