The Pros And Cons Of The Voting System
According to John H. Fund in Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, voting irregularities cover a lengthy history dating back to the infancy of our nation (8). As detailed by William Bird in Vote: The Machinery of Democracy, whether it was in the earliest elections that were conducted by a voice vote, on hand-written paper ballots (votes), or on party tickets, which only listed the names from one political faction, instead of two or three, there have been frequent attempts to take advantage of the voting system in place (1). Whereas today, when an election is imminent and the airways are filled with candidate endorsements, the subject of voter identification usually steps into the public eye. Although a few states passed
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Fund declared that our country had only been surviving instead of confronting the dreadful reality that our election process could be breached (11). Reform is easy to speak about, but difficult to bring about. For reasons mostly related to ineffectual balloting systems, about two percent of all votes cast nationwide in the 2000 presidential contest weren’t counted (Fund 2). According to a poll done in July 2004 by John Zogby, nearly ten percent of all Americans doubt their votes have been counted accurately (Fund 2). Widely publicizing such information could lower voter participation, already a prevalent problem, which is evidenced by the generally low percentage of participation versus voters registered during elections. New and improving technology should be utilized to upgrade subpar voting methods still operated in rural areas. The enhancements of voting equipment would assist in the accuracy of election results and help eliminate costly lawsuits, appeals, and recounts. Anything that would further discourage voter turnout would be in direct opposition of the intent of any future legislation that would be passed in order to help in the process of determining fraud. Voting irregularities are commonplace, but many prosecutors linger in attempting to intervene because convictions for fraud are almost non-existent (Overton 654). They would be inclined to protect their job since they are politically appointed and it would be easier to downplay the election process incompetence. Legislative committees assigned to study the issue would need better data about documented fraud cases to perform statistical analysis and fully understand whether there would be significant gains with the institution of a photo
Fund declared that our country had only been surviving instead of confronting the dreadful reality that our election process could be breached (11). Reform is easy to speak about, but difficult to bring about. For reasons mostly related to ineffectual balloting systems, about two percent of all votes cast nationwide in the 2000 presidential contest weren’t counted (Fund 2). According to a poll done in July 2004 by John Zogby, nearly ten percent of all Americans doubt their votes have been counted accurately (Fund 2). Widely publicizing such information could lower voter participation, already a prevalent problem, which is evidenced by the generally low percentage of participation versus voters registered during elections. New and improving technology should be utilized to upgrade subpar voting methods still operated in rural areas. The enhancements of voting equipment would assist in the accuracy of election results and help eliminate costly lawsuits, appeals, and recounts. Anything that would further discourage voter turnout would be in direct opposition of the intent of any future legislation that would be passed in order to help in the process of determining fraud. Voting irregularities are commonplace, but many prosecutors linger in attempting to intervene because convictions for fraud are almost non-existent (Overton 654). They would be inclined to protect their job since they are politically appointed and it would be easier to downplay the election process incompetence. Legislative committees assigned to study the issue would need better data about documented fraud cases to perform statistical analysis and fully understand whether there would be significant gains with the institution of a photo