The
near-meltdown in the vote count for the New York Democratic primary
featuring scandal-tarred congressman Charlie Rangel should serve as a
warning siren about what could happen in this November’s national
election. It’s not just voter fraud we have to worry about. Sometimes
it’s hard to tell where the fraud ends and the incompetence begins.
The Rangel fiasco reminds us that the United States has, as
Walter Dean Burnham, the nation’s leading political scientist, put it,
“the developed world’s sloppiest election systems.” And New York City is
no unsophisticated backwater.The troubles in the Rangel race began on Election Night, June 26. The voting-machine totals put down on paper had the incumbent beating his challenger, state senator Adriano Espaillat, by a comfortable 2,300 votes in a Harlem district that is now equally divided between black and Hispanic populations.
But after the voting-machine totals were sent
to a computer, the Rangel lead melted to 802 votes; a partially
completed recount has boosted his lead to 945 votes. The New York City
Board of Elections claimed the errors were the fault of New York police
officers who had laboriously entered the election totals from paper
records into a computer system. A board spokeswoman claims the men in
blue entered zeroes for one-seventh of the precincts where votes were
cast.
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