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The Rangel Bungle
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| Contributor | Imperator |
| Last Edited | Imperator Jul 08, 2012 05:09pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | John Fund |
| News Date | Sunday, July 8, 2012 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | A botched New York primary exemplifies how many American elections are amateurishly run.
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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