Democracy Later
Interesting election results last night. Great for Democrats. I wish Duckworth would have won, but then these are the voters who kept Henry Hyde in office for thirty years, so the fact that she got 48 percent is amazing. She’ll be back. But the chaos surrounding the Peraica-Stroger vote is an embarrassment. Peraica is right to be outraged and so should anyone else who believes our country should be able to hold fair, clean elections without any kind of glitches or shenanigans. Cook Country Clerk David Orr claims that the integrity is intact but what are voters to think when there are delays like this?
The Democrats had a good night all around the country but I still have little faith in our balloting system. There were problems everywhere with faulty equipment, incorrect voter rolls and a short supply of markers (!). My biggest question is: Why wouldn’t you test out the equipment before putting it to work in a national election, and make sure the poll workers know how to use it? There shouldn’t be any uncertainty in this process.
there’s a delay because they actually want to get the count correct. what is the big deal? Do we need to knwo within an hour of polls closing who has won. Give them 12 hours if needed or a day, it doesn’t matter. It is better to let them get it right. As for the equipment and problems, it is not like this is something new. There were less problems nationally this year than in most other elections. just because you now have 24 hour news channels looking for something to talk about does not mean things are going any worse having more problems than 10 years ago. They have to create stories to keep you watching so every litle thing is blown out of proportion.
Were they having these problems 10 years ago? Because I don’t remember. I am all for getting the correct count, of course, but then, I was in 2000 as well and they didn’t. The fact is that they had this same problem in the March primary with Stroger and it should have been fixed for yesterday’s election.
I don’t think 24-hour news channels have anything to do with creating this story. I wouldn’t know though, I don’t watch any 24-hour news channels. But if this is normal, I say something is wrong.
Yeah, Di got contested at her polling place, and then she was refused a provisional ballot!
Criminal.
We should be outraged that this is going on; however, it should have been expected. According to WBEZ, David Orr stated months ago, that if the results were close, there would be a delay in counting the votes.
Peracia’s camp preventing people from entering the building added to the delay. I’m sure when Mr. Peracia said “We are not going to have this election stolen from us.” he was saying that each and every vote should be counted.
These things should have been fixed, the voting infrastructure is in shambles. At the same time, the problems we have in Cook County are exaggerated by the closeness of the race. This is wrong and it shows the ineptitude that characterizes county government. From Stroeger’s near declaration of victory and Peracia’s storming the county building to the poor voting infrastructure.
I’ll agree with Danny that it would be nice if there weren’t any uncertainties with voting, but that is an unrealistic goal. With people out there purposely cheating using various methods, how could there NOT be any uncertainties?
Overall though, it seems to have gone relatively smoothly. No demands for recounts or people going berserk. Sometimes being a good loser can really help the democratic process.
from what I can tell this election has had the fewest problems that I can remember. There is only 1 major election still in doubt with one potential recount in Virginia. Minor problems like a few hour delay in counting local ballots (Stroger) are nothing given there are what, tens of thousands of polling places and voting districts? Smooth going this year. Even my former home of New Orleans seems to have done ok and they are still in complete disarray on a daily basis.
I’m not sure that George Allen or Conrad Burns are falling into the “good loser” camp just yet, and Bush looked and sounded a little unhappy today too in his press conference. And although they are not actual politicians, I’d say the NRO Corner and the rest of the right-wing media aren’t taking the loss so well either. That K-Lo is still fuming over Santorum’s blowout, and it is quite hilarious reading. But hey, who wants to nit-pick at such a time?
Of course people will be unhappy when their candidates lose, but what I’m talking about are the lawsuits, empty accusations of voter disenfranchisement, etc. For example, in the ’04 election, there were people who claimed voter disenfranchisement, and when asked how they were disenfranchised, they said they had to wait in line for over an hour.
I’m sure if the Republicans wanted to, they could have brought up lawsuits and gotten people to claim their vote was suppressed. But the Republicans didn’t act like Democrats, and it’s refreshing to see a political party accept that they were beaten at the polls instead of finding weak straw men to blame.
It’s pretty obvious that the reason there are no lawsuits, etc, is because the Democrats won.