Fix This Dysfunctional Voting System

Ballot Boxes

When President Obama in his "The best is yet to come" acceptance speech thanked his many supporters, volunteers  and those who had to stand in line for many hours in order to vote, he threw  in the line,"By the way, we have to fix that."

Our nation which prides itself on participatory democracy definitely needs to fix our dysfunctional system of electing leaders.

It has been twelve years since the fiasco of the  2000 Bush vs. Gore presidential election, and we still lack a system that ensures every citizen the constitutional right to vote. And, in addition to a broken system, we have elected government officials ( Ohio's John Husted and Florida's Rick Scott among others) who try to suppress the vote for their party's political  advantage.

For starters, the notion that a whole nation has to vote on one particular day -- the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November  -- is blatantly undemocratic. According to the U.S. Census Bureau there were 207,643,594 eligible voters in 2006. Ideally a participatory democracy would want all of these people to exercise their right to vote. If all of these people showed up to vote on Election Day, we would need four times more polling stations than there are gas stations. It makes no sense to invest that much in equipment and personnel for one or two election days a year.

Also, in terms of basic fairness, having to vote on a Tuesday during specified hours eliminates many who can't afford to leave their job or their family responsibilities, especially when they face the prospect of standing in line for hours. The man or woman who owns a coal mine is able to vote on a Tuesday afternoon with no financial penalty, but the man or woman in the mine shaft will not have that luxury.

And then there is the problem of the long lines. In Ohio on the Sunday before the election, early voters had to wait in line four or five hours to vote. And this was by design. When the courts forced Ohio Secretary of State, John Husted to allow early voting on the weekend, he limited the hours and the number of voting locations. There was only one voting location in all of Lucas County. In Dayton some early voters were given the wrong ballots.

On day in Florida the polls closed at 7 P.M., but there were so many people in line that some did not get to vote until 1 A.M. In some counties in Tennessee and South Carolina, voters had to wait in line four hours. In Virginia people were still in line after 11 P.M. Nationally 43% of the voters had to wait 15 minutes or more.

It's no surprise either that the delays and long lines are in urban areas where minorities are located in large numbers.

And what's with Florida? Again? It's been 2 days since the election and they still don't know who won.

Florida is indicative of our broken system. We are electing the President of the United States, but we leave the process of running elections in the hands of state, county and city leaders. In the interest of  democracy, fairness, efficiency, and uniformity, it is time for the federal government to set  specific standards for voting across the whole country.

The first standard should deal with early voting. The opportunity to vote early is a necessity, and it should be the same for everyone in all 50 states, providing weekend and evening voting times. Secondly, precincts should be required to have adequate voting machines and poll workers to serve the number of eligible registered voters. The standard should be uniform from city to suburbs, and state to state. Thirdly, poll workers should be trained and tested on their responsibilities and paid as well as comparable skilled workers.

And, very importantly, federal regulations for federal elections should include uniform standards for voter eligibility and identification. It is fundamentally unjust if a voter is rejected in one state, but another voter in the same situation is permitted to vote in the neighboring state. The country as a whole has to determine uniform and just standards for federal elections. The president is the president of the entire country, and the voters of the whole country should have the same opportunity to elect their president.

Let's face it, it's 2012 and it is past time to fix our dysfunctional and inequitable voting system.