Reply #21: Let’s all work together to create accurate voting system in U.S. [View All]

Posted on Sat, Dec. 31, 2005

We have just passed the fifth anniversary of the culmination of the most tragic election in our nation’s recent history.
After we went to the polls in November 2000, it seemed as if the country was ripping apart. There were numerous problems with counting votes in a very close election, but appeals for careful recounts were shouted down (“Sore-Loserman”). The chaos was magnified by the press, who love a good fight. Americans abandoned fairness for partisan sniping that divided the nation. There were few voices of reason.
After only sporadic and incomplete recounts, the Supreme Court, itself sharply divided, purportedly settled the matter on Dec. 12, 2000.
The tragedy is that we didn’t have the will to do the hard work of assuring that all our votes were counted. We Americans acted like fans of bitter football rivals, only worse. After the dust settled, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigated and found “an extraordinarily high and inexcusable level of disenfranchisement with a significantly disproportionate impact on African Americans” (www.usccr.gov).


http://www.thestate.com/mld/state/news/opinion/13521421.htm