Patricia Johnson: My Vote Counts, Will Yours?

Election judges are encouraged to cast absentee ballots prior to the date of the actual election to ensure their right to vote. This year a larger than normal turn out is expected at the polls so election judges will have little time for anything other than scheduled election duties.

When I completed my ballot last week, I knew exactly what would happen to it from the time it arrived at the election office, until it is brought back to the precinct for inclusion into the count on November 2, 2004.

After I filled in the ballot, I checked everything twice to make sure I hadn’t under voted or over voted as over votes do not count. An over vote is when you inadvertently vote for more than one candidate. Since there is no way of knowing ‘voter intent’ no vote will be recorded for any of the candidates with an over vote, therefore extreme care must be taken when completing your ballot.

It is estimated by the National Commission of Federal Election Reform (click here) that two million votes were lost in 2000 due to over voting and/or under voting.

In July of 2001 the CALTECH/MIT voting technology report was released (click here) indicating a loss of 4-6 million votes in the 2000 election. The report concluded there were 1.5 to 2 million votes lost due to confusing ballots and/or faulty equipment, 1.5 – 3 million votes lost due to registration problems, and another 1 million votes lost due to polling place operations.

On October 29, 2002 President Bush signed PL 107-252 Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) (click here). The provisions within HAVA are intended to eliminate many of the problems experienced in the 2000 election.

The 2000 election was a shock to the American voting public. Every step of the way we kept waiting for “justice” to wave a white flag and stop the insanity but it never happened. One day after another we sat glued to our TV’s watching, hoping and praying the nightmare would soon be over.

The nightmare never ended and on December 12, 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Bush v. Gore No. 00-949 (click here) and overturned the Florida Supreme Court decision for a recount, basically giving the presidency to George Bush on a silver platter.

The highest court in the land, our symbol of fairness, impartiality, honesty and integrity had betrayed us. If you can’t trust the U.S. Supreme Court, who can you trust?

Our answer was simple. When it comes to voting we will trust no one and nothing. George Bush convinced the American people that Saddam Hussein had WMD, and opponents of electronic voting machines convinced the American people electronic voting machines were unsafe.

How long will it take for us to realize DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) voting machines are the safest and most accurate form of casting our votes? HAVA requires DRE’s to provide recounts, and if necessary, recreate an entire election, yet people are still demanding a “paper trail” for these devices. This $500.00 add-on for a paper trail does little except put additional profits into the pockets of the voting machine manufacturer.

Unfortunately, it appears U.S. taxpayers are eventually going to be paying the additional per unit fee for something that’s not really necessary. The operation of an electronic voting machine is similar to that of the black box located in an airliner – they record all activity and once the box is opened the data can be recreated from the starting point. When was the last time someone asked for a paper trail for the black box in an airplane?

India just completed an election using 100% electronic voting machines for 380 million voters. They also have an election system that is consistent throughout the country, where ours can only be described as a hodge-podge. Perhaps the solution to our voting woes is to outsource our votes to India.

We missed the boat on the electronic voting machines this year, but there is something we can do in this election to help change the outcome. In 2000 there were a total of 105.4 million votes cast, with 101.4 million votes going for either Bush or Gore. That means there were 4 million ‘wasted’ votes.

Why were the votes wasted?

Presidents are not elected by popular vote; they are elected by receiving a majority of electoral votes. Our next president will be the candidate receiving 270 or more electoral votes on November 2 (hopefully we’ll know the outcome in November).

Whichever party ticket wins the most popular votes in a state, wins all the electoral votes for that state (Maine and Nebraska are exceptions) (click here) so unless there is a possibility a candidate will win a large percentage of the votes in your state, there is absolutely no reason to vote for the candidate.

In 2000 Ralph Nader received a total of 2.74% of the entire vote in the United States. Gore received 48% of the vote while Bush received 47% of the vote, so you can readily see that any vote for Nader, or any other candidate was simply a wasted vote. If 10 times the number of people had voted for Nader the percentage of votes he received would still only be 27.4%

A review of the actual electoral vote indicates 266 electoral votes were cast for Gore and 271 electoral votes were cast for Bush – there were no electoral votes cast for Nader or any of the other candidates; therefore the votes were ‘wasted’.

Many of the today’s papers are reporting that Nader may have as much as 5% of the vote in some states. Do the math folks – there is no way he can receive any electoral votes with only 5% of the vote.

The papers may think they can snow you into casting a worthless vote, but you’re smarter than that – aren’t you?