It
doesn’t really matter to me what your particular political persuasion
happens to be in consideration of the current presidential election snafu.
I think there are valid points on both sides of the spectrum. I just
happen to think that mine are correct and the other guys are wrong. I’m
sure they feel exactly the opposite.
Be that as it may, I would just like to
make a few observations that I feel need to be said at this time. First
off, I hope, no better than that, I pray that we see some sort of national
election reform emerge out of this mess. I agree that all votes need to be
counted. A janitor’s vote that works for IBM is just as important as the
vote cast by the President of IBM. There should be no distinction anywhere
in this country. I am concerned that several congressmen stated that
voters in minority districts had to contend with outdated, old and cast
off voting machines. This equipment was compared to more affluent
precincts that reportedly, had better and newer equipment. In their
opinion this resulted in many votes not being recorded properly or
machinery that malfunctioned during the voting process. My question is
this, if they knew that parts of this country had inferior voting tools,
why didn’t they do something about it before now?
We appropriate money to study things like
water on Mars, but we can’t find the money to ensure that all Americans
have the same shot at casting their ballot? Give me a break. This is
something that should not happen again in any election. This needs to be
corrected as quickly as possible. Let’s also remember that no
election is perfect. I have heard over and over that nearly 1.5 million
votes weren’t counted since the voter failed in some way or another to
follow the voting instructions as required. We’ve all heard enough about
dimpled chads, pregnant chads, and hanging chads. If the states don’t have
uniform standards as to the method to count votes after they have been
cast, how can we ever hope to have an accurate count at any point in time?
How can we divine the ‘intent of the voter’ unless we know what that
intent was from the voter? We can’t, nor should we ‘guess’ as what the
voter may have intended to do when he or she stepped into the voting
booth.
I was surprised to learn that most of the
absentee and military ballots are never counted since they generally come
in after the election has been declared to be over. Obviously in an
election this close, every vote counts and must be counted in a uniform,
agreed upon method to insure the accuracy of the count and the results of
the election. Voting is a solemn responsibility and not to be taken
lightly. It is the voter’s duty to insure that the voting instructions are
followed and that their ballot is cast in the prescribed and legal
manner.
It should be apparent to all of us that the
system in Florida was flawed. It isn’t necessarily their fault; it’s just
something that they have never had to contend with until now. Their lack
of standard policies on how votes should be counted has left a lot to be
desired. Having the votes re-counted time and again by 67 counties without
uniformity will only continue to produce a different result and possibly a
different winner each and every time the recount is performed. It also
opens up the possibility of fraud or alleged fraud by all parties
involved. Partisan rhetoric from either political party has a tendency to
get out of line very quickly and could be avoided by having rules in place
before elections get to this point In the future. Being a person that
thinks of the glass as half full rather than half empty, I trust that the
good that will come out of the current situation will ultimately be of
benefit to all of us and we shouldn’t have to repeat this ordeal again. As
usual write to me at www.pearyperry.com |
