[Previous entry: "Bush's Other Election Day Worry"] [Next entry: "Election Preparations"]

10/28/2004: "An Election Complexity; poised for chaos"

Last night was the final training session for Ann Arbor Election Inspectors. Again, I am one of the people sworn to uphold the constitution etc, I'll stow my rabid partisanship while on duty. Normally, this training session is meant for precinct chairs only; the meeting covers final instructions, final reminders of how the process works, and distribution of some official election materials.

This election is more difficult for two reasons. First, Michigan is a battle ground state. The Ann Arbor co-interim clerks both came out of retirement to assist; this is good, they are great. They reported that Michigan's Secretary of State is petrified of Florida style snafu's. I have notes from the meeting; more later. Second, there are new election laws to handle. Frankly, I think it was a mistake to invite all election inspectors; the stupid questions slowed things down. At least, questions should have been restricted to precinct chairs.

Anyway, I went in today to drop off my absentee ballot. I asked about overriding straight party votes. Rabid partisans can easily vote straight party by selecting that party at the top of the ballot. By voting "Republican", one votes for President George Bush and would be Mayor Jane Lumm simultaneously.

Truth

Now it may be that someone wants to vote for all the Republicans but one; perhaps John Kerry. The easiest way to do that is to vote straight Republican at the top of the ticket, and then vote for Kerry Edwards in the President/VP section.

Now, suppose someone wants to vote for all the Republicans but is disgusted with the choice for President. As above, they may choose to vote straight Republican at the top and to write in "Nun Othea Buv" as their presidential candidate. The computer will cast a vote for all the Republicans but one and drop that ballot into a seperate bin with all the other ballots which contain write in votes. In the past, we would have taken that ballot out and dutifully reported one vote for Sister Buv.

Things are different now. We will have a list of people who have registered as write in candidates. We will seek Ssiter Buv on the write in candidate list and note that her name is missing; we will dutifully not report one vote for Nun Othea Buv.

Here's where it gets bad. When we see an invalid write in name, we are supposed to check to see if the voter chose to vote straight party. In this case, the voter's selection of an invalid write in candidate would cancel their intended override of their vote for President Bush. That is, while the voter has expressed a clear intent to not cast a vote for president, election law orders us to interpret that ballot as a vote for Bush/Cheney.

Consequences

This is serious fodder for post election lawyering. It is bad enough that a confused election inspector would misinform a voter. Worse, a whole precinct full of inspectors may not realize that the vote is supposed to revert to President Bush. They may underreport votes for President Bush. IMO, this is grounds for a recount. Further, during the course of the recount, lawyers and pundits may get shrill in questioning whether or not this ballot should be counted as a vote for President Bush.

I really hope that the election is not close. Still, I'd rather have a close Bush election than a clear Kerry victory.