Nov. 4, 2008, is shaping up to be the most mistake-riddled Election Day in American history.
Dr. Robert Pastor saw it coming. Pastor, the director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University in Washington, D.C., predicted earlier this year that states would not be prepared to effectively handle 2008 elections.
In a column on Stateline.org posted during January 2008, Pastor said the majority of states have failed to adopt or even embrace reforms that would restore confidence and trust in America’s flawed election system. As a result, Pastor said problems with this year’s elections are inevitable.
The biggest problem according to Pastor will be voter registration lists. There has not been a thorough review to determine the quality of the lists. So a number of problems are still likely to occur in this year’s general elections. Pastor also points out "about one third of the states have bottom-up databases that rely on counties and municipalities to retain their own registration lists and submit information to the state rather than the other way around. In contrast, top-down lists typically deliver information in real time."
There are problems with new computerized systems that have replaced archaic punch card and lever voting. A paper trail is necessary in the event of recounts, but Congress has failed to fund and provide voter-verified paper-audit trails. Some states are so concerned that they were thinking about dumping their electronic voting systems in favor of a paper system prior to the November election.
Pastor says, "Poll workers are overworked and underpaid. They put in a 14- to 16-hour workday, face complex job requirements after little training and generally receive scant compensation."
Pastor’s gloomy summary is that, "Voters are likely to face hassles with registration lists and voting machines. Poll workers will remain under-trained and overworked. Election management remains under the thumb of partisan officials, and voter identification is likely to remain problematic. 2008 is unlikely to be an improvement over 2006."
The Washington Post concurred during September 2008 when it reported, "Election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot."
This month, the Post reported that thousands of eligible voters must reestablish their eligibility because of mix-ups in new state registration systems.
The Post writes, "Tens of thousands of voters could be affected in Wisconsin. Officials there admit that their database is wrong one out of five times when it flags voters, sometimes for data discrepancies as small as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date. When the six members of the state elections board – all retired judges – ran their registrations through the system, four were incorrectly rejected because of mismatches."
Pastor’s employer, the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University released a study during January 2008 providing more evidence that photo ID’s are not obstacles to voting.
A random sample of registered voters in Indiana, Mississippi and Maryland found that only 1.2 percent of registered voters lack a government-issued photo ID.
More than two-thirds of all registered voters in the three states believe the electoral system would be trusted more if people had to show an ID to vote.
The study also demonstrates that a very small percentage of registered voters will be adversely affected by a photo ID requirement.
Nearly a quarter of the registered voters in the three states lack confidence that their votes will be counted accurately, and an even greater number perceive that fraud is more widespread than experts believe.
Nearly all, 96 percent of voters in this study said showing a photo ID would not make them less likely to vote.
Opposition to voter IDs has come largely from those who fear that this requirement will disenfranchise voters who do not have IDs or would find it difficult to acquire them. But they were unable to locate a single individual in Indiana who was prevented from casting a ballot because they lacked an ID.
The tragedy is that Wisconsin does not require photo ID’s to vote. Gov. Jim Doyle and state Senate Democrats killed any chance of a photo ID requirement being in place for the critical November elections when the governor vetoed photo ID legislation three times, and Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on a photo ID constitutional amendment. A common sense photo ID requirement would not be an obstacle to voting or hamper the process. Such a law would be a great step in cleaning up an election system in disrepair. It appears that as predicted, there are going to be many problems on Election Day, here and across the country.
State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents Wisconsin’s 28th District.
