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To be perfectly fair, leave no vote uncounted
Saturday, November 18, 2000
By BOB GLANZMAN
Having worked for the King County Elections Department for more than two years in the early 1980s, I would like to share my thoughts on the presidential election controversy.
The United States is looked upon by the entire world as the role model for and chief exporter of democracy. If we are to retain this position, our election process must be beyond question. The fundamental tenet of our democracy, the principle of one-person, one-vote must be upheld at all costs. My vote is of no greater or lesser importance than your vote or the vote of any other American citizen. All votes must be counted as the voter intended that vote to be counted.
No person can rightly claim the mandate to lead our nation without the consent of the governed. Indeed, anybody who steps forth and claims to be the duly elected leader of the country without leading in the popular vote will rightly earn the worldwide distinction of "Fool Extraordinaire."
During the past eight years, and at numerous other times in our history, the president has served without a clear mandate of the people, having been elected either by a plurality of votes cast, the Electoral College vote or by Congress rather than by majority vote. It may also be said that due to low voter turnout, very few of our presidents have actually had a mandate to hold office, having failed to obtain the votes of the majority of those citizens who are duly registered to vote.
For all my adult life, most citizens of this country have acknowledged that the Electoral College is antiquated and in clear violation of the one-person, one-vote principle. It should have been abolished long ago, but the threat of overturning the popular vote hasn't been real for the past 112 years, until now. This relic of our past is unfortunately part of the Constitution, so I will take this opportunity to ask elected members of Congress to immediately begin the process of amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College.
Our insane quest in this country for instant gratification and the surrounding media hype have falsely made the uncertain presidential election results appear to threaten our stability. As of Nov. 11, there are several million legitimate absentee ballots yet to be counted nationwide, some of which are still in the mail from overseas. A premature declaration of the winner will disenfranchise these voters and is a real threat to our democracy. The errors caused by dubious technology of the ancient pull-lever voting machines and the less-than-accurate punch-card voting are a disgrace. No citizen can honestly say justice is served when election results are determined by technological failures or confusion.
When I worked for King County, the punch-card ballots were rejected for individual races in which no punch was made, when two or more punches were made and when the ballot couldn't be read by machine due to damage.
The extraordinary ballot rejection rate seen in Palm Beach County in Florida and several other counties throughout the country would not have been accepted as legitimate election results here in King County. Such results would have been investigated, the problem isolated and corrected.
In order to preserve our democracy and stability, we must all relax, wait for all cast ballots, including absentees, to be counted, investigate all complaints of fairness, including defective ballots and racial discrimination and honor the intent of each voter. If that requires a revote in certain counties to determine the will of the people who believed they were casting a legitimate vote, so be it.
How do we proceed with this issue? Patience will prevail. The name-calling and posturing must stop. Those who have accused others of being stupid are not immune to arthritis, diminished eyesight or the confusion that sometimes accompanies aging. When all ballots have been counted and grievances with the process addressed, it may be that neither candidate emerges the clear winner with a mandate to govern.
In that case, I suggest that both parties agree to the unprecedented action of a nationwide runoff election between the two as is done in other countries when no candidate has a clear majority. To borrow a phrase from a candidate, both must show clearly that they "trust the people" and abide by the decision of the people. The alternative, of course, is to determine the next president as was done recently in Yugoslavia.
Bob Glanzman lives in Seattle.
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