My colleague Mark Crispin Miller has written an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal Will this Election Be Stolen?. The issue he raises–voter fraud of various stripes–is the single most important issue the American electorate faces. He concludes with the following powerful thought:
It is not the failure or success of any candidate or party that most matters but the exercise of voting rights, and, through them, our self-government. If either team prevails despite the disenfranchisement of some Americans, that victory will mean all that much less; and if your favorite wins, and then the U.S. doesn’t do anything to fix its voting system (and otherwise restore this faltering democracy), that victory of his won’t matter much at all, since We the People will have lost control for good.
great post! It seems both parties have vested interest in keeping a screwed up vote counting system, and the lack of interest from the 2004 and 2006 elections in this issue from mainline party leaders was disappointing. As Mark points out, it’s not just discarding or stuffing ballots, but also through voter roll purges, gerrymandering, voter ID constraints, and a whole host techniques to shave off critical percentage points from the electorate… But maybe as time goes on and these races are heating up and publicized that the american public will collectively re-examine and reform them, since it seems to be a total free-for-all for both parties right now.
Comment by dmh — November 1, 2008 @ 11:11 pm