Voting errors linger five weeks after election

All the electoral hiccups and rumored shenanigans have only intensified public scrutiny of the electoral system (which for centuries functioned by hook and crook and common sense, and involved little more than setting up voting booths and unlocking the ballot box). Now, there's a growing expectation that the polls should be run with all the speed and accuracy of a NASCAR pit stop - and the fact that 40 states still haven't complied fully with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

For all the system's shortcomings, experts note that this year's presidential result is not contested - a step up from 2000, with its Florida court battles. .

"Any voter who lost a vote is one vote too many, but no matter what you hear from various groups or on the blog, it really did, overall, go smoothly," says Doug Chapin, director of the nonpartisan Electionline.org. "The fact that there were 120 million voters and we got a clear outcome in a race that was competitive the minute the polls opened on the East Coast, I think says the election system is in relatively good shape and it'll only get better."

But the Carteret County snafu and ensuing confusion loom large, especially for the voters of this coastal district.

"It reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the little boy raises his hand in class and says: 'My brain is full, may I be excused?' " says Mr. Chapin. "There's 4,500 people and their votes are just gone."

The state agriculture commissioner once ruled the roost in Raleigh, but today, especially for the fishermen and longshoremen of Morehead City, it's an office that holds little sway. Still, the mistake here, which happened when an exhausted poll worker failed to notice a "memory full" caption on a machine, illustrated how hard it can be to juggle technology and common sense.

Despite the room for error, calls to staff the polls with an army of savvy computer scientists may be premature. Indeed, many say the poll workers are the true heroes of the system - quiet bureaucratic bees who take their jobs seriously, and help give American elections their air of democracy and authenticity. The human element, though imperfect, potentially willful, and sometimes idealistic to a fault, at least provides a moment of face-to-face contact and the tactile experience of a ballot exchanged.

"We have these elaborate computers, and I don't think we even know the extent to which they can be manipulated and by whom, and that tells you the ultimate unreliability of that device to determine the future of a country," says Ms. Swirsky.

Still, most Americans seem to agree that the voting booth is no place for Luddites, and that the occasional conflict between man and machine is inevitable, and no reason to toss out computerized voting. That, perhaps, has prevented outrage in Carteret County, where few seem to be planning a return to the polls in January.

"The system's not perfect, but, in the end, it did the job," says Will Johnson, a wind-whipped Morehead City fisherman. "There's no uproar because people didn't feel it was something that could turn the intent of the election."

Page: 1 | 2