Tuesday, October 19, 2004

We're in for a long election day

Milwaukee District Attorney, E. Michael McCann is calling for more people to staff the voting precincts on election day in preparation for anticipated record turnouts. So far, absentee ballots are up, indicating that voter interest is as high as predicted. Or maybe more people are trying to avoid the potential lines on November 2nd.

The chart ,which accompanies the absentee ballot story, has some interesting numbers. The City of Milwaukee is printing 157,000 absentee ballots. As of today, only 12,085 absentee ballots have been requested. Call me skeptical, but I think we make it TOO easy to vote in this country. It is especially easy in Wisconsin where you can register the day of, with no formal ID other than a piece of mail addressed to 'you' at the address where you 'live'. Yet, we make it even easier:
It also shows that more voters are aware of a recent change in the law - which no longer requires voters to give a reason to vote absentee - and that voters want to avoid long lines at the polls, they said.
I think it is getting more difficult to trust the election process in this country. Absentee ballots, I believe, are the most difficult to monitor and validate. I'd much rather see more polling sites opened, or expand the election to two days, to relieve 'long' lines, than increasing the number of absentee ballots.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wisconsin currently allows early voting. You can go to the county court house and vote before the election, only someone else will have to put your ballot into the machine on the day of the election. In most cases this doesn't bother me, but what is going to happen in Milwaukee where they have a few hundred thousand extra ballots.

If they end up with more votes than people who came in and voted. They randomly draw ballots and eleminate them. Since this would result in roughly 50/50 destruction of ballots, there is no downside to people cheating. Especially in Milwaukee where no one is every prosecuted by McCann.