From the onstart of elections there are reports of voting malfunctions. FoxNews CNN
I am sure there are a million other sites saying the same thing. Of course, if the Democrats win, it will be because of the voting problems. If the Republicans win, same thing. I know there are a lot of questions/problems with electronic voting and some of these new machines out there to log and register the votes casted. However, I find it hard to believe that election day has ever gone ‘problem free’.
Has there ever been an election where there have been no problems at the voting booths?
A side question, are there any statistics out there about voting irregularities back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s?
I doubt any American election has ever been 100% trouble-free. It’s probably an impossible ideal of perfection, but still worth aspiring to. Any country with as many polling places we have, and with so strong a tradition of local (sometimes corrupt) control over the balloting process, is gonna have problems. Read Robert Caro’s book about Lyndon Johnson’s 1948 run for the U.S. Senate sometime; it’ll curl your toenails. That said, our elections these days go about as smoothly as in most Western democracies, from what I’ve seen and read (Florida 2000 being a glaring exception, alas). Elections in the old Soviet Union went very smoothly indeed, but they were no more than hollow rituals.
As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time.” So get out there and vote!
The smaller the voting population, the less likely there are to be errors. My guess is that most papal elections in recent history have been conducted without any of the following problems:
[ul]
[li]inaccurate electoral register[/li][li]dead voters/candidates[/li][li]ballot stuffing[/li][li]impersonating a voter[/li][li]bribery of election officials[/li][li]obstructing vote counting[/li][li]improper or unclear ballot instructions[/li][li]voting machine error[/li][li]lost ballots[/li][li]voter intimidation, coercion, or bribery[/li][li]tampering with ballots[/li][li]tampering with voting machines[/li][/ul]
This is a good opportunity to tell the tale of Mr George Kindness, who in 1973 was elected to Machars Community Council in Aberdeen, Scotland, by the only vote cast in the entire election. The Councillor didn’t even bother to vote for himself.
I doubt if there were many problems counting the votes, or rather vote, and verifying the result.