Deliver us a decisive outcome. The nation is best served by an unambiguous result.
7:43PM EST November 5. 2012 - As Americans vote today, there are fears the nation could be headed for a replay of the notorious 2000 election, when the razor-thin margin in Florida delayed the naming of the next president for more than a month. Americans can only hope that history doesn't repeat, because the Florida recount created anger and cynicism that linger to this day.
Virtually everything about the 2000 election was a mess, starting with the extraordinary twist that had Democrat Al Gore winning the popular vote by a half-million votes but losing the Electoral College — and the presidency — to Republican George W. Bush. That sort of split decision hadn't happened since 1888.
Adding to the bitterness was the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling along ideological lines in Bush v. Gore, shutting down the recount in Florida and securing Bush's victory. Chief Justice John Roberts' move this year to uphold President Obama's health care law was widely seen as an attempt to protect the court's reputation by avoiding another high-profile ruling that would have been perceived as overtly partisan.
Which brings us to today. With polls showing Obama and Mitt Romney locked in a close race, could the nightmare scenario happen all over again?
The good news is that voting procedures have improved since the Florida fiasco in 2000. At the heart of that mess was a stunningly incompetent voting system where bad ballot design and flawed ballot-punching machines produced the infamous hanging, pregnant and dimpled chads. Those machines have largely been junked, and most states now use electronic voting machines, or machines that optically scan paper ballots.
The bad news is that far too many electronic machines create no paper record that voters can check to be sure their votes were recorded accurately, or that could be used in an audit or a recount. Some studies suggest that electronic voting systems could be vulnerable to hacking. And new voting laws, including photo ID requirements, go into effect in some states this year, which could cause confusion at the polls.
Further, close finishes in battleground states such as Colorado, Florida and Ohio would trigger automatic reviews that can take days. Both sides have lined up squadrons of lawyers in case it comes to that.
Ohio, which might decide the winner, also has a potentially serious problem with absentee ballots that could delay the vote count there. More than 1.4 million Ohioans requested absentee ballots, but far fewer than that have come back. People who requested absentee ballots but instead show up at the polls today will have to vote with provisional ballots, which by law can't be counted for 10 days.
Former secretary of State James Baker, who led the Republicans' fight in Florida and co-chaired an influential commission on election problems with former president Jimmy Carter in 2005, acknowledged on Fox News last week that recounts could occur in several states this year. "I hope it doesn't happen," Baker quickly added. "It would be better for America's democracy if it doesn't."
Amen to that. America's democracy is remarkably resilient, but after a long and divisive campaign season, the nation is best served by an unambiguous result.
If the election does go into overtime, the Florida experience shows there will be no honor in the fight. In that case, the burden will fall on the candidate in the weaker position to do what Richard Nixon did in 1960 and Gore did in 2000. Ignoring the pleadings of their fervent backers to fight on, they attempted to heal the wounds with gracious concessions.
Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2012/11/06/editorial-our-election-day-prayer/
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