What if Election Day lasted a fortnight?

OUR OPINION: EXPANDING THE VOTING PERIOD HAS PROMISE AND FLAWS

Miami Herald   02 December 2004

Florida's election supervisors are on the right track in taking the success of early voting as a signal that voters may be ready for big Election Day changes. It is obvious in Florida and the entire country that the tradition of setting aside 12 hours on a single weekday as the official day to vote especially in presidential elections is outdated.

So the supervisors propose extending the voting period up to two weeks. The idea is good, but the devil is in the details. Change must not come at the expense of good features in the current system, such as the convenience of precincts to voters. While change is in the offing, election supervisors would do well to consider uniform standards for Florida and a paper-trail backup for counties lacking a reliable means of vote verification.

Encourage turnout

The entire country likely would see larger turnouts if general elections were held over several weekends, when people have more free time. Congress has shown little interest in such a change. But some states wisely are taking the initiative. Oregon, for instance, conducts elections by mail for a month leading up to Election Day.

The supervisors election-postmortem proposals need more study. In particular, the idea of abolishing precincts and replacing them with extended voting at several polling places in each county needs more scrutiny.

Granted, the idea of setting up large polling sites equipped with numerous voting machines and well-trained workers is appealing to supervisors who struggle every election to find enough polling locations and workers for each precinct. This is especially vexing in high-population counties like Broward and Miami-Dade.

Easy access

But getting rid of the precinct system seems premature, especially given the large number of elderly and immigrant voters in South Florida. It's hard to conceive how election supervisors could guarantee easy access to retirees accustomed to voting in condominium complexes or to Haitian Americans who are more comfortable in precincts with volunteers that include Creole-speaking neighbors.

Supervisors should consider making uniform voting and a paper trail of all votes top priorities. Fifteen densely populated counties use touch-screen voting machines that don't print a record of votes while the rest of the counties use optical scanners with paper trails.

This creates potential disparities during recounts. The 15 counties must either supply printers for the touch screens or, better, switch to optical scanners for true uniformity. We applaud the election supervisors for their professionalism in handling the many challenges of the November election.

But there is room for improvement. Supervisors should lead the statewide charge for uniform and accessible voting. Extending the voting period would be a good start.