Today is election day in America, and everyone seems to agree on one thing: tonight's election will be close, no matter who wins.
Both campaigns are gearing up for a long day of getting out the vote followed by a long night of watching results and listening to reports from the field. Unfortunately, the most powerful country in the world will almost inevitably be plagued by electoral problems, ranging from voter intimidation to problems with counting the votes.
Some degree of difficulty should be expected with any close election in a country as big as the United States. To a certain extent, it is amazing that national voting goes relatively smoothly at all, with a president being selected by states with widely varying laws regarding who may vote and how they may do it. Nevertheless, we should not settle for almost good when this election looks to have a tremendous impact on the direction of the nation.
Be on the lookout today for reports of systemic voter intimidation by Republicans in black areas of the country. By now it has become almost folklore that activities of this type happened in the closely contested 2000 Florida vote, but this is not going to be confined to myth tomorrow.
The New York Times reports that many Black neighborhoods are littered with flyers advising residents that if they registered through Democratic or Democratic-leaning groups, their registration is not valid. This, of course, is untrue and is designed to keep Blacks, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic, away from the polls.
This sort of playing fast and loose with the rules in order to keep people away from the polls is reminiscent of the pre-civil rights-era south. It is not right, it is not American, and it is certainly not in keeping with the spirit of the party of Lincoln.
Perhaps the GOP attitude is best typified by Kristen Casazza of the Tufts Republicans, who remarked during a Q&A at the UCCPS' mock debate that she didn't want liberals voting. One would hope that the GOP has enough faith in its platform and candidates to encourage all eligible citizens to vote. Casazza's comment, and some Republican party members' actions, would suggest otherwise, however.
On the other side of the aisle, the boys (and girls) in blue are causing problems of their own by raising suspicions of fraudulent voter registrations and other shenanigans worthy of Richard Daley or professionals of Miami-Dade county.
Democrats attempted to argue in Ohio that those casting provisional ballots should be allowed to do so in any precinct, not just their own. Not only would this proposal make voter verification extremely difficult, but it would tremendously complicate vote counting. Luckily for this country, the idea was rejected in court.
Tomorrow morning we will either wake up to a re-elected Bush, a newly elected Kerry or neither. The fact that the third scenario even exists is less a testament to the vibrancy of this country and more a testimonial to governmental ineffectiveness and partisan stubbornness. It is truly a failure of this country's leadership that we are discussing recounts and election controversy before this election, when we should have fixed our problems immediately in 2000.
