It's time to fix the voting process

The time has come for the American electoral system to join the 21st century. We are currently dependent upon a system that is antiquated and ill-equipped to handle large-scale, modern elections. Not to mention, it is fraught with fraud potential.

Much has been made this election cycle of the so-called Bradley Effect, named after Tom Bradley, the late former African American mayor of Los Angeles who ran unsuccessfully for governor of California, even though exit polls predicted his victory.  Thus, it is the notion that White people lie to pollsters with regard to voting for a Black candidate, inflating polls and resulting in election results that don't match polling data, particularly exit polls. This conventional wisdom troubles me, and Team Obama should be on-guard against it. 

And not for the reasons you might think. Simply put, I believe this widely accepted--and disputed--phenomenon could be used to cover a multitude of sins, namely voter fraud.  There is a reason that conservative commentators like Joe Scarborough have been incessantly injecting the Bradley Effect into every segment of their programs for weeks now, and it bears watching. 

Was it the Bradley Effect that caused major networks, based on exit polls, to call Florida in 2000 for Al Gore, only to have to reverse it when the voting results did not add up? Or was it the Bradley Effect that caused all the exit polls to indicate that John Kerry was comfortably leading George W. Bush in 2004, only to have the votes tally in the Republican's favor?  Now, I know that this has all been blamed on unreliable polling, but I'm not so sure.  That's just too easy by half.

But voter fraud/confidence is only one problem that threatens the reliability of the American electoral system. As monumental as voter fraud is, an even bigger threat is the system itself, which is so cumbersome that it tends to suppress voter turnout. It is a disgrace that people have to wait in line for as long as 10 hours to vote, as they did in Georgia last week. Sadly, some people opted not to wait because of work, parental, or other responsibilities. And this was during early voting. 

For days now, I have watched with excitement--and anxiety--the seemingly endless lines of people waiting to vote early in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Georgia and other places. Who could not be excited about the record numbers of people voting, except perhaps Republicans? On the other hand, as a resident of a state without the provision for unconditional early voting, I found the sight absolutely chilling.

Virginia does have in-person absentee voting, but this is not widely known, and voters must meet one of 17 conditions, or opt for the presidential-only ballot. In which case, one can vote absentee, no questions asked. The only catch is that you then forfeit your right to vote for local and statewide offices like city council or Congressional races. Further, in most counties, one is limited to exercising this right only at the office of the registrar of voters. Larger counties have satellite offices, but this is strictly discretionary.

It makes you wonder why it is that every American citizen is not guaranteed an equal voting experience.  And, if Floridians, and others, have been braving such non-stop lines since late October, what can we expect today, the one day allotted for voting in Virginia, Missouri, Pennsylvania and other states with no early voting?  We can only hope that no one will leave his/her polling place without voting in this historic presidential election.   

Predictably, around this time every year, pundits, politicians, and civil rights organizations begin to lament this woefully inadequate system.  Yesterday, a federal judge refused to issue the temporary injunction sought by the NAACP in a lawsuit filed last week against Governor Tim Kaine (a Democrat) and the state of Virginia, citing inadequate numbers of voting machines for the expected massive turnout. They were seeking extended voting hours and, at the very least, to have ample paper ballots on-hand, so as to avoid a repeat of several instances when precincts ran out of ballots during the state primary, one of several cases prompting a Justice Department probe.

While I applaud the NAACP's efforts, it was too little too late.  This pending problem should have been tackled months ago.  Indeed, this ongoing national electoral crisis must be addressed once and for all. 

A few simple changes could be implemented that would make the process exponentially more efficient. I recommend the following changes:

• Presidential voting should be for an extended period, like two weeks, comparable to that of Florida and some other states which began voting on 20 October.  One day is just not enough for over 300 million people to vote.  Presently over thirty states have early voting.  This should be expanded nationally.

• There should be a national voting system. In fact, it should be mandated that all states should be governed by the same electoral rules, use standard voting machines and standard counting methods that generate a reliable and auditable paper trail.

• Each person of voting age should be granted one day of paid leave to exercise his/her constitutional right to vote.  This would remove the anxiety of missing a few hours or even a day of wages. 

In the final analysis, voting should not be a painful process. It should be enjoyable, and no one should doubt whether one's vote will count. It is just not acceptable that the American people should not be privy to the most sophisticated, reliable voting technologies available, especially since Americans routinely act as election monitors around the world.

We just have to get this thing right. I pray that history will not repeat itself this year, leaving Barack Obama, his lawyers, this writer, and the vast majority of American voters wondering how it slipped away again. And wondering if we can ever get out of bed again.