Do Voting Problems Threaten Our Democracy

When things go awry at the voting booth, as they have several times in this hectic primary season, much of the blame often falls on ill-trained poll workers who are paid a pittance.

And there have been some head-scratching moments: While folks in Washington were waiting hours to vote under record turnout Feb. 12, poll workers hid electronic voting machines because they didn't like the touch-screen devices. On Super Tuesday in Chicago, poll workers passed out pens meant for e-voting machines. When those instruments made no mark on paper ballots, election workers said they were full of invisible ink, an explanation that was upheld by onsite precinct judges.

While some of these snafus defy logic, many can be pinned on poor training, experts say. We're running the most important part of our democracy on the backs of untrained, poorly paid volunteers," said Lloyd Leonard, who has helped research poll worker issues for the League of Women Voters. "It's not their fault. Funding is not a priority. They aren't paid much. They try real hard. We should all volunteer and help them out."

Some of the examples in this story are amusing, but the bottom line is that these things can threaten the very democracy, that our "voting rights" are supposed to insure. As a Nation we need to take these issues seriously, and make sure that they are addressed, so we do not have a replay of 2000, or 2004, when many voters "believe" that they did Not have their votes counted, and that the "choice" for who our President would be, was not correctly tabulated!!



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