Remember When Judges Decided Elections After The Vote?

[IDemo]

When the United States Supreme Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush on the night of December 11, 2000, by means of a partisan 5-4 ruling so constitutionally dubious that even the five conservative justices who endorsed it urged that it never again be cited as precedent, there were really only two main directions in which America could have headed in fixing its state election laws, the failings of which were laid bare by the Florida recount.

Remembering all those poor, confused ladies in Palm Beach County who mistakenly voted for Patrick Buchanan, state legislators around the country could have made it easier for Americans to accurately cast their vote. Or, conversely, still stinging from the tangible proof of the flaws and impurities inherent in every state's election procedures, state lawmakers around the country could have made it more difficult for Americans to accurately cast their vote.

The first scenario would have acknowledged that the injury caused by thousands of valid votes not being counted is far worse than the injury caused by a few invalid votes being counted. The second scenario would have acknowledged the opposite. The first scenario is a concept familiar to anyone who knows anything about our criminal justice systems -- better to let 100 guilty men go free than convict an innocent man. The second scenario is rooted in the twisted logic of the Constitution's Three-Fifths Compromise.

Twelve years later, it's clear which vision has prevailed. On the federal side, Congress has merely nibbled around the edges since 2000. There was the Help America Vote Act, a 2002 federal statute which helped lurch voting technology a little further into the 21st century. And there was the Move Act, a 2009 federal statute, written by Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y), which helped ensure that military veterans abroad could vote -- and have their votes counted -- no matter where they are stationed.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/remember-when-judges-decided-elections-after-the-vote/261194/

[davidpdx]

1. I will attest that overseas voters have a lot more options now

then we did back in the 2004 & 2008 election. Oregon is allowing email balloting where by they send you the scanned ballot, you print it out and then scan it and email it back (I also get to keep my ballot as a souvenir). Before this occurred, they mailed the ballots out 6 weeks early and I generally got mine in about 2 weeks and turned around and mailed it back with in a day or two allowing plenty of time for it to get back to Oregon (we also had to pay postage unless we were able to get someone on a base to mail it).