The Duty of Democrats

Is to ensure that all get a fair chance to vote and have their vote counted. As I’ve often complained this has not been done well and in Illinois, it probably cost the Democrats the 1982 election—

Here are some probably more than fair use sections of an Eric Zorn column on the subject:

The tendency of punch-card balloting to underrepresent votes in low-income communities “could easily swing a close presidential election from a Democratic candidate to a Republican candidate,” said Joanne Alter, former commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

What distinguishes Alter’s prediction from those of other observers of the ongoing election mess in Florida is that she made it nearly 11 years ago.

Punch-card voting “has effectively disenfranchised poor voters by the tens of thousands,” she wrote in a 48-page report titled “Lost Votes.” The “disparities between the number of ballots cast and the number of votes counted for presidential candidates,” she wrote, “are vastly greater in poor and heavily Democratic areas of the county than in wealthy and heavily Republican areas.”

and more

A key finding in her report was that if the lost rate in city precincts had been the same as it was in the suburbs for the 1982 Illinois gubernatorial race, Democrat Adlai Stevenson probably would have beaten Republican James Thompson by 12,000 votes instead of losing to him by 5,000.

But aside from a 600-word story inside the Tribune, Alter’s crusade received little media attention and curiously little support from minority leaders. She finished last in the primary and has not run for office since. The reforms she proposed, including a full-scale study of lost voting, voting mini-courses in high schools and vastly improved signage at polling places, have gone largely ignored.

Because it would be too expensive and we still haven’t fixed the system. Some claim HAVA will fix the problem by 2006, but the reality is that most election officials are looking for the easiest system, not necessarily the most accurate and secure. While caustic in writing, I’m generally a friendly guy in person. Writing is always more direct than speaking, but a few weeks ago I was in a conference with a local election official who was primarily concerned with how hard his job was. Needless to say he didn’t like me and some colleagues were surprised by a guy who in conferences is known to laugh when criticized, actually got angry. The vote isn’t something to think of as a convenience and those officials who think it is need to find a new line of work.