Tuesday, November 07, 2006

More on Advance Polls

This article on advance voting in the US midterms suggests that of the estimated 25% of electors who are casting early ballots many are doing so because they prefer the certainty of paper ballots over machine voting. Great. The unreliable nature of voting machines is driving advance voting. Whatever you make of advance voting, this reasoning should give us pause. When are Americans going to get better and more consistent electoral administration?

2 comments:

Katie said...

The most plausible answer is not in our lifetimes. Too much discretion is left to state and local authorities, in my opinion. The U.S. needs broad, nonpartisan, federal oversight, but principles of federalism are likely to keep this from happening.

Also, while the twenty-five percent figure is alarming, I suspect it's skewed. People vote absentee because they don't feel like waiting in line after a day at work, and also because it's simply easier to do these days. (In an increasing number of states (including my home), voters can request absentee ballots without an explanation as to why it's necessary.) News reports on voting anomalies and the problems of voting machines likely cause people to choose that as a reason for voting absentee even if it's not the case.

WJM said...

Canada is also a federation.

We used to have the US checkerboard election rules problem.

We fixed it.

Nine decades ago.