With critical state primaries coming very soon and the Presidential election in November, states are not prepared to effectively handle 2008 elections.
That’s the opinion of Dr. Robert A. Pastor, director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University in Washington, DC.
Pastor says the majority of states have failed to adopt or even embrace reforms that would restore confidence and trust in America’s flawed election system. As a result, Pastor says problems with this year’s elections are inevitable.
The biggest problem according to Pastor will be voter registration lists. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 gave the states until January 1, 2006 to complete integrated, interactive lists. A few states have yet to comply. There has not been a thorough review to determine the quality of the lists. So a number of problems are still likely to occur in this year’s primary and general elections. Pastor also points out “about one third of the states have bottom-up databases that rely on counties and municipalities to retain their own registration lists and submit information to the state rather than the other way around. In contrast, top-down lists typically deliver information in real time.”
There are problems with new computerized systems that have replaced archaic punch card and lever voting. A paper trail is necessary in the event of recounts, but Congress has failed to fund and provide voter-verified paper-audit trails. Some states are so concerned that they are thinking about dumping their electronic voting systems in favor of a paper system prior to the November election.
Pastor says, “Poll workers are overworked and underpaid. They put in a 14- to 16-hour workday, face complex job requirements after little training and generally receive scant compensation.”
Little progress has been made on photo ID’s. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue is scheduled this summer.
Pastor’s gloomy summary is that, “Voters are likely to face hassles with registration lists and voting machines. Poll workers will remain under-trained and overworked. Election management remains under the thumb of partisan officials, and voter identification is likely to remain problematic. 2008 is unlikely to be an improvement over 2006.”
Pastor’s employer, the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University released a study last month providing more evidence that photo ID’s are not obstacles to voting.
A random sample of registered voters in Indiana, Mississippi and Maryland found that only 1.2 percent of registered voters lack a government-issued photo ID.
More than two-thirds of all registered voters in the three states believe the electoral system would be trusted more if people had to show an ID to vote.
The study also demonstrates that a very small percentage of registered voters will be adversely affected by a photo ID requirement.
Nearly a quarter of the registered voters in the three states lack confidence that their votes will be counted accurately, and an even greater number perceive that fraud is more widespread than experts believe.
Other key findings:
The issue of showing a photo ID as a requirement of voting does not appear to be a serious concern in the three surveyed states.
Almost all registered voters have an acceptable form of photo ID available (e.g., driver’s license, passport, military ID or some combination of these documents).
About 1.2 percent of registered voters do not have a photo ID, but half of those have documents proving citizenship, and most of the states have provisional or absentee ballots or other exceptions that could permit people to vote.
Registered voters without photo IDs tended to be female, African-American, and Democrat. However, that number of registered voters in the survey was too small (24 of 2,000) to draw definitive conclusions about this group.
A much larger problem among poor and minorities is not registered voters without IDs, but those who are not registered.
More than 97 percent of all registered voters in the three states surveyed could produce proof of citizenship, either a birth certificate, a passport, or naturalization papers.
Nearly one-fifth of registered voters saw or heard of fraud at their own polling place, and an even larger number, 64 percent of all respondents - reported hearing of fraud elsewhere.
Nearly all, 96 percent of voters in this study said showing a photo ID would not make them less likely to vote.
Opposition to voter IDs has come largely from those who fear that this requirement will disenfranchise voters who do not have IDs or would find it difficult to acquire them. But they were unable to locate a single individual in Indiana who was prevented from casting a ballot because they lacked an ID.
Here is the full report, Voter IDs Are Not the Problem: A Survey of Three States.
