What distinguishes Alter's prediction from those of other observers of the ongoing election mess in Florida is that she made it nearly 11 years ago. Alter issued the report when she was running against David Orr and Calvin Sutker in the March 1990 Democratic primary for the office of Cook County clerk. Yet Republican-leaning counties actually improved following the introduction of punch cards, dropping from 14 lost votes per 1,000 to 12.
Technology makes a difference.
Sometimes, though rarely, the voter simply abstains and votes only for lower offices and ballot questions. That the lost rate is up to four times higher in poor communities than on the North Shore indicates further, more complicated and perhaps more delicate problems that hinder our efforts to discern the will of all voters. I had a big press conference, hand-delivered the report to everyone on the County Board and brought it up at every campaign appearance. A key finding in her report was that if the lost rate in city precincts had been the same as it was in the suburbs for the 1982 Illinois gubernatorial race, Democrat Adlai Stevenson probably would have beaten Republican James Thompson by 12,000 votes instead of losing to him by 5,000. But aside from a 600-word story inside the Tribune, Alter's crusade received little media attention and curiously little support from minority leaders.