Editorial: Counting every vote

An editorial Madison, WI   The Capital Times
November 27, 2004

  More power to Ukraine's main opposition party.

Following a troubled campaign and disputed voting, which produced a result that many believe had been warped by electoral missteps and misdeeds, tens of thousands of supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader, rallied in Kiev's Independence Square to demand a full and accurate accounting of the people's sentiments.

The initial government tally in Ukraine showed Yushchenko winning 46.7 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovych, had 49.4. That was a close enough margin to foster fears of wrongdoing and concerns about the count. And Ukrainians are not about to simply dismiss those fears. Rather, the citizenry demanded that they be addressed.

Ukraine is a relatively new democracy, but Ukrainians have something to teach Americans.

The 2004 presidential election in this country remains an unsettled affair. That does not mean that the results are likely to shift. But it does mean that there are plenty of questions about the count in states such as Ohio and New Mexico that still must be resolved.Provisional ballots, which were cast on Election Day by citizens who had their right to vote challenged, are still being counted. Tens of thousands of standard ballots, which were cast but which did not appear to feature a vote for one candidate or the other, must be reviewed. And, of course, there are still plenty of questions to be resolved with regard to voting machines that did not create a paper trail to permit a proper recounting of ballots.

America's electoral systems - and the proper term is "systems," as they vary from state to state - are erratic and chaotic. They lend themselves to abuse and error. And they do not inspire confidence.

Citizens of the United States have every right to raise questions about our unsettled election.

We should be every bit as persistent as the Ukrainians when it comes to pressing for answers.

And when the counting and recounting are finally done, when voting rights activists have sorted through and hopefully resolved all the complaints about the 2004 election, we should get down to the serious business of fixing our broken electoral systems.

That process ought to begin with the establishment of national standards for registration, voting, counting and recounting all ballots. The lack of such standards creates crises in election cycle after election cycle.

It is time for the chaos to stop.

The United States ought to serve as a model for the rest of the world. But that will not happen until Americans demand, as loudly as are the Ukrainians, that our elections be honest and fair - and that every vote be counted.