Well we seem to go in cycles. In the year 1999, everyone was worried that the
world would collapse because of Y2K bugs.
Power Plants were going to fail, stop lights would stop working, entire
communication networks would go down, and there would be mass riots in the
streets. Now we seem to be saying the same things about the upcoming election.
Overly long lines in early voting, predictions of mass voter turnout on election
day causing 5 hour waits, electronic voting that would misread the finger
touches and go to the opposite party, and large amounts of voter fraud. Toss in
a little voter challenges by on-the-street lawyers for both parties and we have
the makings of a press
orgy , er, I meant to say catastrophe.
All you have to do is look at any news site or blog, and there are literally
thousands of people screaming about how bad it is going to be. No one is
actually saying “hey, we seem to have this covered, we should be ok”. Standing
in line to vote isn’t anything new. I can only recall one time where I walked up
to vote and was less then 3 deep in line to cast my ballot. That was the
election between Bill Clinton and the first Bush. At that point, I had decided
to go early, so I was there at 7 am, and there were only a couple people in
front of me. I waited about 5 minutes, cast my ballot, and left.
I don’t recall hearing about any major problems then. Although, it is fairly
safe to say that news for the masses via the internet was not even around at
that time. Now it is everywhere, and anywhere. Internet, radio, tv and cell
phones are such an invasive thing these days, that it is almost impossible to go
10 minutes without having contact with one of the mediums. And those mediums are
awash with just how bad this is going to be.
In one state, there are already mass complaints of electronic voting machines,
touch screens, not reading people’s input correctly. In this case, democratic
voters are claiming that their votes are switching to the republican party.
Ironically, that agency running the show is headed by a republican, and they are
saying it is an anamoly. Obviously, this won’t look right.
Elsewhere, long lines are causing the retirees to say that they can’t wait that
long to stand in line, so they are being forced to not vote. These folks are
claiming to be republicans and they are being unjustly punished by the wait.
While it is fairly safe to say there will be problems, it is much safer to say
there will be way overblown reports of things that are glitches, and not really
the end of the world. Both sides will be tossing blame at anything and
everything hoping to see what will stick. Both sides will be filing lawsuits,
and both sides will be demanding recounts.
The only thing that would stop it would be an absolute landslide of the popular
vote. That means that one candidate would have to nail at least 60% of the
popular vote so that the other side will gracefully deliver their concession
speech.
Naturally, that is not likely to happen this time. Ironically, that same
smothering amount of information is almost a battle cry for both sides to get
out and vote. The only question this time is swing votes, since that seems to be
the deciding factor for this election. Previously, as little as 10 years ago,
people were simply not that in tune with what was going on. This election has
electrified both parties to a peak that hasn’t been seen before.
That being said, while there will be huge cries of fraud on both sides, the
actual panic of long lines, and faulty machines, and understaffed poll locations
is starting to sound very much like 1999.
This year, I did something unusual. I requested an absentee ballot. Will it get
counted?