Is it possible that in this United States of American, in the Year of Our Lord 2008, after twice botching it so badly in the past, that the election officials in this country could botch it yet one more time?
In recent days we have heard reports from state election authorities around the country that the nation’s election system is not prepared. And what are they not prepared for? For all the voters who are turning out in record numbers in the primaries, and who are anticipated in the Fall Elections this November.

The election officials are not ready for all those voters! Not enough poll workers, they say. No enough booths. Not enough machines. The number participating is creating long, looong lines at every polling place. Voting hours may have to be extended. We may not have final results of today’s primaries in some states until sometime after noon tomorrow. And there’s no telling what kind of snafus we can anticipate in the Fall.
Gosh, you would think after the debacle of 2000 and the disaster of 2004 that state and county election workers would be finally getting it right, wouldn’t you? Or is it possible that we’ll just have another “excuse” for why the results are out-of-kilter and continue to produce the opposite of what the majority in this country want? Am I making this all up? Or is it possible that we have, after all is said and done, the most inefficient electoral system in the world? We, who boast of the wonders of democracy…we, who seek to import it all across the known world…we, who claim to be at the top of our game, leading humanity itself in its own self-governing evolution…can’t even hold an efficient, let’s-get-it-right-just-once national election.
Maybe it is the United States which should ask for “impartial observers” to go around the country and make sure there is no “hanky panky” on election day, and no errors in counting or difficulties in voting that would skew the election results one way or the other. What do you think? Think we can get Jimmy Carter to monitor our own election for fairness and accuracy?
You would hope that we could do better, wouldn’t you? What I’m wondering is…did no one know that 2008 was an election year? Could no one guess, 15 months ago, that the candidates were going to be John McCain and either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Is this all a surprise to anyone? News magazines from Time to Newsweek to U.S. News & World Report were predicting this as early as late 2006 and throughout 2007. What’s the big shock here?
And could no one have guessed that the first election for president in many years without an incumbent running would bring out the vote?
Well, enough harping I guess. It will be very, very interesting to see how today’s vote turns out. I’m going to be glued to my TV set most of the evening, won’t you?