very simple

The New York Times has a really good editorial about how the New York Board of Elections is actually quite worse, and less accountable, than that of Florida. In particular, "There is no ideal way to administer elections, but New York’s system combines the worst parts of all systems."

I personally think that the massive problems in a state like New York don’t get a lot of play because everyone pretty much knows the outcome of the Presidential election here. But the problems in the election system trickle down into the elections for state and local offices, and we’ve had quite a few recounts and such for these types of offices in the past few years.

Heck, when I went to vote last year (local elections only), two poll workers were having a major screaming match about how to operate the antiquated machines, and one of the women was actually threatening to shut off the machine and go home (thereby invalidating a day’s worth of votes in my district). On my way out, I actually found a police officer and told him he should go inside in order to prevent such a thing from happening. There’s definitely a need for better standards throughout the system.

Tags: politics and law