no longer getting the grease?
Hurdles to Voting Persisted in 2008
By IAN URBINA, NY Times
WASHINGTON — Four million to five million voters did not cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election because they encountered registration problems or failed to receive absentee ballots, which is roughly the same number of voters who encountered such problems in the 2000 election, according to an academic study to be presented to the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.
An additional two million to four million registered voters — or 1 percent to 2 percent of the eligible electorate — were “discouraged” from voting due to administrative hassles, like long lines and voter identification requirements, the study found.
The study, which draws from a survey of about 33,000 eligible voters, was conducted in October and November 2008 by the Cooperative Congressional Election Survey, a consortium of more than 150 university researchers, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who specialize in voting issues.
The study found that the most common registration problems involved clerical errors, like entering voter information incorrectly in statewide databases, or voters who changed their address but failed to inform election officials. At least 4 percent of eligible voters surveyed said they requested absentee ballots but failed to receive them....
In the last eight years there have been tremendous improvements in the voting process, the study said. In 2000, residual votes — which refers to the difference between total votes cast and total votes for a given office, and a commonly used measure of voting technology problems — averaged 2 percent. In 2008, after phasing out punch-card ballots and lever machines, residual votes averaged less than 1 percent, which means that roughly 1.5 million voters were allowed to have votes counted.
Little has been done, however, to remove barriers to registration and absentee voting.
“Registration issues were for 2008 what machine problems were for the 2000 election,” said Stephen Ansolabehere, a political science professor at Harvard and the study’s lead author....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/us/politics/11vote.html
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 13:40 (sixteen years ago)
man if you've ever dealt with local election officials (in any locality) you know it's a miracle things function at all. i'm sure there is deliberate hanky-panky some places, but those offices tend to be staffed by people with low salaries and high job security -- a bad combination. it's the kind of patronage place the sister-in-law of some low-level state functionary lands.
― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 15:05 (sixteen years ago)
i don't know if this is instant thread derailment, but has there ever been discussion of reenfranchising felons? it seems such a screwed up vestigial rule, but one that i can imagine draws a lot of attention and would be difficult to repeal in myriad ways.
― deveraux billings (schlump), Wednesday, 11 March 2009 15:37 (sixteen years ago)
eight years pass...
two weeks pass...