If the vote had been closer...

[mia]

The 2004 election may not have an asterisk next to it the way the 2000 election does, but the mechanics of our democracy remained badly flawed. From untrustworthy electronic voting machines, to partisan secretaries of state, to outrageously long lines at the polls, the election system was far from what voters are entitled to.

It's patently obvious that presidential elections, at least, should be conducted under uniform rules. Voters in Alaska and Texas should not have different levels of protection when it comes to their right to cast a ballot and have it counted. It's ridiculous that citizens who vote in one place have to show picture ID while others do not, that a person who accidentally walks into the wrong polling place can cast a provisional ballot that will be counted in one state but thrown out in another. States may have the right to set their own standards for local elections, but picking the president is a national enterprise.

This is obviously a job for Congress, and it deserves the same kind of persistent, intense lobbying effort that reformers have given the issue of campaign finance. But improvements by the states may be easier to achieve, and will clearly help prod Congress by their good example. Advocates should push every level of government to be part of the solution:

1. A holiday for voting.

2. Early voting.

3. Improved electronic voting.

4. Shorter lines at the polls.

5. Impartial election administrators.

6. Uniform and inclusive voter registration standards.

7. Accurate and transparent voting roll purges.

8. Uniform and voter-friendly standards for counting provisional ballots.

9. Upgraded voting machines and improved ballot design.

10. Fair and uniform voter ID rules.

11. An end to minority vote suppression.

12. Improved absentee ballot procedures.

This year's election, thankfully, did not end in the kind of breakdown we witnessed in 2000. But that was because of luck. There were many places in the country where, if the vote had been closer, scrutiny of the election process would have produced the same sort of consternation. In a closely divided political world, we cannot depend on a margin for error when it comes to counting votes. We have four years now to make things right.


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...if the vote had been closer, scrutiny of the election process would have produced the same sort of consternation

That's a big if.