More on the Washington Follies

My good friend Greg over at Another Project has his own take on the Washington gubernatorial battle that may never end. It's worth a read -- I obviously disagree with much of what is asserted, but I'll try to generally stay away from the 2000 Florida recount and Al Gore (in fact, I think people should make it a policy to avoid Al Gore generally, since he's a little weird lately). I'm even more aggravated that Greg calls me "otherwise reasonable" -- since when have I been reasonable?

Generally, I'll say this -- the problems in our voting system stem from three sources:

1. The voting systems are less than optimal, in that people in some places are voting on computer screens, while other people use punch cards, and others use something else. In addition, plenty of people don't trust the voting screens, while other folks (like me) don't trust people to do the counting either. This is not a problem that can be eliminated entirely (even if you give some people paper receipts of electronic machines, they won't always trust them), but it can be minimized.

2. Voter fraud is a problem in several places. I know that everyone laughs about dead people voting, but there need to be more accurate ways to maintain voter rolls than currently exist. Maybe things aren't as bad as Chicago in 1960, when Daley delivered Illinois to Kennedy, but this problem is one that's winked at far too often.

3. Stupid voters like the people in Palm Beach County in 2000, or the people who left the polls in the Panhandle after the networks mistakenly called Florida for Gore in 2000. Or people in Minnesota who cast a vote for "Ewards".

I don't think there's a way to solve problem #3, and if there is, I'd also like to the solution to educate the American electorate so everyone's making an informed choice. There are people in every election who vote Democrat or Republican for the dumbest reasons, and there are people who are stupid enough to cast their ballot incorrectly. There's only so many safeguards we can build into the system. If you are confused about your ballot, then ask questions -- it's part of casting your vote responsibly. If you care about your vote, then a certain modicum of responsibility is on you, the voter. People like Greg and the Minister of War are serving and defending our country so that you can responsibly exercise your rights as a citizen. I'm not going to say that you owe it to them, but perhaps they would. And you definitely owe it to yourself.

As for #1-2, there are problems with our system. I tend to believe the problems balance themselves out politically, but solutions need to be put in place. My problem with the Democrats in Washington, and the litigation that may occur in every future election that's reasonably close, is that partisans will seek to shift the rules after the election has taken place and their candidate has finished short in the count. Perhaps the bigger problem is that election laws aren't exactly precise. But too often, the lawsuits we witness in these electoral disputes ask or allow judges to impose rules on the process that have absolutely no basis in reality -- witness the Florida Supreme Court and its wackadoo deadline for certification in 2000.

But just as Greg is tired of the GOP claims that the Dems seek to steal close races, I'm sick of the mantra of "counting every vote." For one thing, it's generally about counting until you're ahead, then stopping additional recounts. If Gregoire had led after the mandated recount, would the Dems be asking for a hand recount, even though several votes may have been miscounted? For another, let's be clear which votes Democrats want counted:

Shortly after the election, upon seeing how close the race was, the Democrats began chasing voters who cast provisional ballots with mismatched or missing signatures. (Provisional ballots are used when voters vote somewhere other than their regular polling place or when a voter's eligibility is in question.)

Now, chasing down the problem ballots wasn't the problem. The problem is that the Democrats insisted they were undertaking the task to make sure every vote counted (even though the Dems were only interested in going the extra mile in Gregoire-backed King County).

And here's how the party went about making every one of those King County votes count:

Ryan Bianchi, communications assistant for Gregoire's campaign, told The Seattle Times that volunteers knocked on doors and asked voters with problem ballots if they voted for her. "If they say no," he told The Times, "we just tell them to have a nice day." And if they said yes? The red carpet was rolled out to assist these most deserving voters with the process required to turn their erroneous ballots into valid ones.

Look, I'm not saying the GOP has clean hands on the issue. But I am saying the continuing litigation-happy environment for close elections serves no one, except maybe the lawyers and the press. But hey, those are two popular constituencies, aren't they?