Taking care of our beams

News stories and analyses have discussed, ad infinitum, the Electoral College, the U.S. Constitution, Florida election laws and courts, the design of ballots, the age of voting machines, and chads, dimpled, pregnant and otherwise. Criticism has been levelled at conniving political parties, unclear state laws, poorly equipped canvassing boards and prejudiced judges. But no one seems to be willing to include one of the key components on the list of failed elements in this election: incompetent voters.

It has become sadly obvious that many voters do not know what they are doing when they go into a voting place. They have not read the newspapers, which provide sample ballots. They skip the examples provided at the polling place. They do not examine election materials sent to them by the candidates. They fail to ask for help when they don't understand what they are doing behind the curtain.

The result of this incompetence, confusion and ignorance is millions of botched votes as people select two candidates for the same office, change their minds in mid-vote (a suspected cause of dimpled chads), or hand in ballots that do not meet the specifications for a valid vote. These actions are not the result of stupidity. On the contrary, we suspect that most of the voters scored high on high school and college exams by diligently following the directions that told them to "fill in the spaces completely with a number-two pencil."

Once a president has been chosen, we trust that much will be done to correct the problems with the election system. Machines should be updated, laws must be clarified, protest and contest periods have to be streamlined, recounting methods must be standardized, and uniformity in presidential ballots will be explored.

But something else needs to be done: Voters must take care of the beams in their own eyes before criticizing the splinters in the system. Voting is not something to be done sloppily, in haste or unclearly. The responsibility for making sure it's done otherwise, regardless of the equipment or ballot design, lies in the hands of the individual voter.

(12-14-00)