Democracy | Voter Rights

Fixing An Election System In Need Of Reform

This past election, the voting process involved long voting lines, voter ID confusion, uncounted or miscounted ballots, voting machine malfunction. Additionally, patchwork local regulation, partisan redistricting and undisclosed campaign donations all played a role in making our election process seem less secure, less like a fully representative democracy.

The New York Times offers some potential solutions:

A Broken Election System

New York Times, Editorial – “While President Obama was delivering his victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, people were still standing in line in Florida to vote. Thousands had waited hours to vote in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, some in the cold, some giving up wages to do so. In a spontaneous aside — “by the way, we have to fix that” — the president acknowledged the unnecessary hardship of casting a vote in the United States and established a goal that he now has an obligation to address.

Read the rest of this editorial at The New York Times

The Common Good calls upon lawmakers at all levels and from all parties to work together to repair our election system. The only way for all citizens to feel like stakeholders in our democracy, is for them to feel that their voting rights are fully protected in a nonpartisan way.