Election Day? How About Announcement Day

Election Day — I can do without it.

Now before you get all nasty with me, hear me out.

I am not advocating getting rid of elections, just Election Day.

On the occasions when people are moved to vote — usually in a divisive presidential election or when alcohol sales are on the ballot — one day just isn’t enough.

Early voting was designed to help alleviate long waits and encourage people to vote when it was convenient.

The problem is, people procrastinate, and some think they just have to vote on Election Day.

To use the most overused phrase of the year, that caused the perfect storm.

At least we had one in Benton County, and kind of like the Northeast, it is going to take us some time to recover.

Eliminating Election Day — I’d call it Announcement Day — would require all states have some form of what we now call early voting. Our friends to the north in Missouri don’t have early voting, nor do a surprising number of states.

Guess they don’t realize it is the 21st century.

Early voting would just become voting. You get two weeks to cast your ballot — I am not opposed to extending it to three weeks, but you have to have a limit.

Election officials start counting immediately — no waiting to Announcement Day. Surely there is a way to program the machines to give running totals. Voting would conclude on the Saturday before Announcement Day in order to give election officials time to get their ducks in a row.

Paper ballots need to go. The machines should be programmable so that provisional ballots can be cast on them.

Paper ballots would only be available for active military and the homebound.

I don’t want hear any of this “Ooh I am scared of the machine — somebody might mess with my vote!” Please. Where does this nonsense come from? Anything is possible, but I know of no cases of it happening. Messing with paper ballots is easier.

I also think voting by email is a good plan. Those participating would be provided a personal ID number and access to a secure server. They can vote in their pajamas.

In the event none of my good ideas are adopted, something has to be done with the system we have.

First, county officials must bite the bullet and buy more machines. The machines used for early voting are not available for use on Election Day because they have to be reprogrammed for specific precincts. Since early voting ends on Monday, there isn’t time to reprogram. Reprogramming is, apparently, quite a bit of work.

Of course how the county will pay for these machines is a big question. I point you to my colleague Tom Sissom’s stories on the Quorum Court’s Finance Committee. Members are quibbling over hundreds of dollars. Machines costs thousands.

So, it would seem, the justices of the peace might need to raise some money. This won’t be easy because no one wants to pay more taxes. Sure, some cuts can be made, but I think some kind of additional revenue will be needed and I doubt the justices of the peace are going to go door to door selling candy bars.

The second thing that has to be done is to get the darned machines to work when they are suppose to. I lost count of the reports we had of machines not working. We are told they are tested before voting begins, so why don’t they work on Election Day?

Finally, the thing that really has to be done is better train poll workers. I don’t mean to be critical of these volunteers. There are few people willing to do the job, and I appreciate those who do. However, their training, or perhaps a lack of understanding of the training, creates big problems.

The most glaring example of this was the paper ballot debacle. Some distributed paper ballots just because one or two people were using the machines. Take those actions and add the fact some machines didn’t work for a period, plus those people who think paper ballots are the only way to vote, and it didn’t take long for the paper ballots to run out. The result: even longer lines.

I think that we can brag that a 73 percent turnout is great. It hasn’t been long since we complained of complacency.

What we don’t want to do is discourage people because the effort is so onerous.

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