Hasen on the hassle that's coming
Richard Hasen writes in The Recorder: It will be tempting for most Americans to believe that our system for running elections worked Tuesday. After all, John Kerry conceded defeat and George W. Bush no doubt will have a second term as President. But our election administration system is badly broken, and there's good reason to believe the problems won't be fixed in time for 2008, when the next election could create yet another Florida debacle.
We came much too close for comfort this time around. If the Ohio margin had been around 36,000 votes instead of around 136,000 (a small difference in percentage terms), we would have seen a battle royal over the 130,000 provisional and absentee ballots that were yet to be processed and counted in the next week and a half. It would have been Florida all over again, only with more lawyers and controversy. ...
The fact that the election administrator's prayer was answered and the election was not close in absolute terms should not obscure the fundamental problems with our rules for running elections. No other advanced democracy uses partisan election officials to administer its elections. No other advanced democracy uses such a decentralized system with its patchwork of rules.
We dodged a bullet this time. Next time, we may not be so lucky. It is time to nationalize and depoliticize our system of election administration. The public's faith in our democratic process demands it. -- law.com - Article