Standardless Voting

It's not hysteria to talk about the kinds of systematic voter suppression on display in Ohio on Election Day. This posting of the minutes of a public hearing about voter issues is a laundry list of suppression's greatest hits. It includes stories of 3 machines per precinct, 3-hour lines for voting, people getting frustrated and leaving, challenges to black voters, angry and officious precinct leaders, others needing tons of ID just to get a ballot, people voting for Kerry but having it tally for Bush, people on touchscreen machines voting for Nader even though his name wasn't supposed to be on the ballot, handicapped voters not directed to applicable entrances, and finally, most tellingly, GOP areas having none of these kinds of problems. The lack of national standards for national elections is absolutely ridiculous. Nowhere else in the world votes this way, including the elections in Afghanistan this administration is so fond of trumpeting. Is Kabul using touch-screen machines, with one machine per 200 voters, while Kandahar has paper ballots, with one station per 1,000 voters? Of course not.

We have to do something about the voting problems in this country.