The article is skimpy on evidence that other countries have perfected an efficient, trustworthy voting process. I guess the main argument is that countries that can get all the votes in by a specific deadline are more trustworthy?
The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
11–20 of 79 posts
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#12I just worked the polls in Pennsylvania - the new voting machines are pretty great. You get a paper ballot, you insert it, you use a touchscreen to make choices, the machine prints the ballot with your choices on it, shows it to you behind plexiglass, you check over it for correctness. If it's all good, you hit done and the ballot is pulled in to a hopper. If not, you can redo. You get a machine count instantly at the end of the night, and a paper ballot trail for recounts that are voter-checked.
Apparently other locations had some problems with paper jams from the ballots, but at least my operation had 3 machines and could have easily handled our voters with just 2 active without resorting to hand-filled ballots.
The only real difficulty is the absentee ballots which were obviously a new effort (at this scale) lacking infrastructure. And they were prevented from processing any ahead of time. I think calling this "dangerous" or a "disgrace" is, in fact, blatantly disgraceful and dangerous.
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#13This is simply disinformation. The "inability to count votes" in many of the swing states this year was due to their Republican legislatures refusing to pass legislation allowing for the absentee ballots to be counted as they arrived, leading to a backlog after the election that they thought would make it easier to challenge these votes in court or to raise doubt about the outcome of the election. As we do every year, we will count all the votes, and each county and state will do their final canvass and report the results by the legally mandated deadline.
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#14I'm not particularly bothered that it might take another day or two for all the votes to be counted. I'd much rather have the devil I know than a bunch of automation and technology that might have bigger issues. Since it's not nationally controlled, and each US state (and county) can do what it wants, a big push to use tech is almost sure to backfire. And backfire in ways that aren't immediately obvious.
I'm not bothered either. I think one reason this comes across as an "issue" is that a majority of the public believes that "election day", the event, or holiday, or whatever you want to call it, is the day on which a new president is elected.
This narrative is pushed by tradition, news media, and the politicians themselves (if it's in their interest). I think we need to separate this narrative in two separate days; one day is Voting Day, the day on which everyone who wants to participate in voting must have their ballot mailed or submitted, and Election Day, which should be a month later, after all votes are counted, where the official results are published, and we accept a new president.
This is good for the American people, in that it's reliable and clearly defined, good for the media, because now they can have a month long headline where they hem and haw and speculate about who will win, and good for the politicians, in that there's time for a smooth transition.
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#15To have consistent federal elections would require an erosion of state sovereignty. Is this something that would receive bipartisan support after this week?
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#16I don't think so and any responsible steward of history would also disagree. The point is to spread power out, rather than concentrate it.
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#17[deleted]
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#18I'm not particularly bothered that it might take another day or two for all the votes to be counted. I'd much rather have the devil I know than a bunch of automation and technology that might have bigger issues. Since it's not nationally controlled, and each US state (and county) can do what it wants, a big push to use tech is almost sure to backfire. And backfire in ways that aren't immediately obvious.
I really don't think this is about a tradeoff between time and reliability.
Other developed countries have, for decades, reliably given results within hours of polls closing, without "automation or obscure technology". Time to results is a factor in the credibility of the results, just as auditability and transparency.
International election observers regularly raise concerns about protracted and drawn out election counts in less developed parts of the world. I wonder how they would report on US elections.
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#19Don't forget that 300,000 votes are currently unaccounted for: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/11/0...
Re: The U.S. Inability to Count Votes Is a National Disgrace. and Dangerous
#20there are 100 things which are disgraceful about the american electoral process. Whether or not the votes are counted in one day or three is probably the least important of all of them.