And paying for such improvements is not easy for cash-strapped local governments, which oversee elections in America. When you're competing with police, fire, schools and pothole repairs, you don't do very well. Hawkins was one of many county officials who voiced concern yesterday about the costs of improving voting as they opened the first meeting of a National Commission on Election Standards and Reform, a group formed in response to Florida's election mess. The group will make recommendations to the county officials who administer the nation's 192,000 polling places. Even that might not cover the cost, Hawkins said.
Cost is only one of several vote-reform challenges.
Others include deciding which technology to embrace, how to improve registration, how to make ballots uniform, and how to make state laws consistent about how and when to count disputed votes. Elections are the cornerstone of our American democracy. We need to implement the best election system possible. One such complaint emerged yesterday as Florida civil rights organizations, charging blacks were disenfranchised in November, sued Florida election officials in a bid to overhaul how elections are run. The lawsuit, rounding up complaints from the Nov. 7 presidential election, asks a federal judge to get rid of punch-card ballots used in 25 counties, fix the state's system for purging voter lists, and monitor Florida elections for 10 years.