Call it, what, our crapshoot democracy?
The looming election -- the process itself, not merely the feints and jabs of the candidates -- is actually getting some mainstream media attention, as in, ahem, voting public, excuse me, but maybe you should be aware that irresponsible self-interest has been detected in the vicinity of our polling places and some bad choices have been made lately (electronic voting is unreliable) and, well, how badly did you want your vote counted?
In September, for instance, the Washington Post sounded this subdued, hapless warning: "Faced with a surge in voter registrations leading up to Nov. 4, election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot."
Got that? Election Day could be chaos in many places. Election officials are bracing themselves. Crazy, untested equipment, too darn many new voters. Should the rest of us be bracing ourselves too?
On Oct. 5, the Lakeland, Fla. Ledger put a little more urgency into a story about the state of Florida's -- and the country's -- election
system, and even suggested that the process was being sabotaged by more than just well-intentioned, bipartisan bungling:
"Voting used to seem pretty simple," writes Joe Follick. "Citizens showed up on Election Day. Candidates and political parties focused on their campaign messages. State officials urged folks to vote and tabulated the results quietly.
"But all that has changed since 2000's historic election. Now the weeks preceding an election have become critical battles with the deployment of lawyers and angry accusations of bureaucratic chicanery aimed at keeping voters away."
Power transfer is no different in a settled democracy than anywhere else it turns out. It's as messy, greed-driven and trouble-prone as an unregulated free market. Probably the biggest threat to fair and free elections is our faith-based belief that on this one occasion, when the stakes are highest, no one in America -- no one who has power to lose -- is going to cheat. This is a fool's mythology.
In point of fact, our future is up for grabs in less than a month, ladies and gentlemen. The struggle to control it is raw and primal.
|
