Lost Votes, Problem Ballots, Long Waits? [U.S. Voting] Flaws Are Widespread, Study Finds

nyt ^ | February 6, 2013 | Adam Liptak

[re_tail20]

The flaws in the American election system are deep and widespread, extending beyond isolated voting issues in a few locations and flaring up in states rich and poor, according to a major new study from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Waiting Times at Ballot Boxes Draw Scrutiny (February 5, 2013) The group ranked all 50 states based on more than 15 criteria, including wait times, lost votes and problems with absentee and provisional ballots, and the order often confounds the conventional wisdom.

In 2010, for instance, Mississippi ranked last over all. But it was preceded by two surprises: New York and California.

“Poor Southern states perform well, and they perform badly,” said Heather K. Gerken, a law professor at Yale and a Pew adviser. “Rich New England states perform well and badly — mostly badly.”

A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor’s Gerken’s 2009 book, “The Democracy Index,” was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said.

“Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,” Professor Gerken said. “But it also produces professional peer pressure.”

The project includes an interactive tool that allows rankings by individual criteria or clusters of them.

Some states, for instance, lost very few votes because of shortcomings in voting technology and voter confusion, with the best 10 reporting failure rates of 0.5 percent or less in 2008. In West Virginia, by contrast, the rate was 3.2 percent.

Natalie Tennant, West Virginia’s secretary of state, said she was not happy with that result and would look closely at Pew’s data and methodology. But she added that “2012 went really well, even with Sandy,” referring to the hurricane that disrupted early voting. “We were humming,” she said.

“You’re only as good as your next election,” she added.

[Da Coyote]

I’ve got six good reasons for voting problems:

1. Voter fraud by liberals.
2. Voter fraud by progressives.
3. Voter fraud by dim-bulb-crats.
4. Voter fraud by illegal aliens.
5. Voter fraud by Holder and his fellow felons.
6. Voter fraud by the bat-eared-b*stard.

[Vaduz]

For democrats voting is a shell game.

[OKRA2012]

Add to that, voter intimidation by Democrats and the media against Republicans and efforts by the Obama campaign to crowd polling stations with Democrats making it difficult for Republicans to vote due to long time consuming lines.

The system is rigged to produce an outcome that hurts Republicans.

[Old Sarge]

"What difference does it make!?"

[shoff]

If we removed the voter fraud wouldn’t the lines be shorter? Personally the biggest problem I found at the polls was the dead voters they seem to take an eternity to cast a ballot like they don’t have anywhere else to go.

[Chad N. Freud]

1. “In 2010, for instance, Mississippi ranked last over all. But it was preceded by two surprises: New York and California.”
If a state ranks in the last place, isn’t it by definition preceded by the other 49? Or does the writer mean that NY and CA ranked last in the previous two years . . . ?

2. “Poor Southern states perform well, and they perform badly. . . Rich New England states perform well and badly —”
Wow, helpful data. How much did they get paid for this study? I could have mailed this in for half price.

3. “Some states, for instance, lost very few votes . . . “
How does one know how many votes one has lost?
(I admit, this is probably explained in the article, but it still sounds weird.)

4. “Some states . . . lost very few votes because of shortcomings in voting technology and voter confusion”
Unclear: did they lose few votes because of these shortcomings; or did they lose few votes that had these shortcomings?

The writing/editing in the New York Times justifies all the layoffs.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

“efforts by the Obama campaign to crowd polling stations with Democrats making it difficult for Republicans to vote due to long time consuming lines”

Wouldn’t that make it difficult for anyone, Democrat or Republican, to vote?

[drypowder]

with the exception for the active duty military personnel stationed out of country only an on site and in person with ID voting should be the only acceptable way of any and all US elections. Using a paper ballot, vote and then ink the finger. EVERY other method of casting a vote needs to be eliminated. Ballets should then be counted a minimum of three times by three different groups of people and then compare the tallies in public. Increase the voting time to two days and the vote counting time to two days. just my opinion.

[Iron Munro]

Democrats predict voting problems and delays if legislators pass laws in an attempt to reduce voter fraud.

Then they set about making their predictions come true.

Then they complain that it is the fault of people who try to eliminate fraud.

[OKRA2012]

No. Democrats are less likely to have a job and have more time to vote, while Republicans work and tend to be older and can’t stand in line for hours with unwashed Democrats. The Democrats by getting all those types of voters to the polls made it even more inconvenient and troublesome for Republicans to vote.