The pivotal, gotcha moment in Michael Crichton’s sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain comes when we find out that a super-secret, multi-billion dollar biowarfare lab has been brought down by a tiny wedge of paper, which kept a crucial alarm bell from ringing. No alarm bell has all sorts of dire consequences involving killer space germs, thermonuclear bombs, and laser beams. This is Crichton’s favorite theme, high tech brought down by low tech and human hubris.
Fortunately for county election boards across North Carolina, fiery death or fatal disease is not a possible outcome resulting from the serial breakdown in vote-counting systems. Even if costly re-votes are needed to decide some races, the process is not beyond redemption so long as the proper steps are taken to fix it. Unfortunately, there are already signs that the actual problems in the voting process are not well understood.
First, it is crucial to remember that it is voting process, something that involves many steps and only as robust as its weakest link. Focus only on the man and/or machine inputs of the process and you miss the big picture. Machines can provide an accurate tally of votes and poll workers can adhere to the rulebook without fail, but if the process is flawed there will be a failed outcome.
Where are there signs of a flawed process? In Mecklenburg County, early results were downloaded in 13 separate laptop computers for later computation. Even assuming workers will never err during the downloading, this is a bad process. Think of the last time you were counting a large number of anything. Did you make 13 little piles or one big pile?
The process which spread the early vote data across many machines was simply asking for a double-count error in the final tally, which is exactly what happened. The vote counting process should be as streamlined as possible to help minimize errors.
Similarly in Carteret County, the process required election workers to update software in order for voting machines to tally more votes, the failure to do so lost some 4,000 votes. The machine’s manufacturer says the election workers must have had their very own Andromeda Strain moment, and ignored a flashing warning light indicating the machines were “full” of votes.
Instead of relying on warning lights or a hodge-podge of software updates, each county should have a pre-election date certain that all machines have the same, latest version of the manufacturer’s software installed. If this sounds like an imposing requirement, it can only be because elections and vote counting are too often treated as a part-time, once every few years operation. In reality, it is a process that requires good preparation all year-round.
Notice that this change in approach involves a change in mindset as much as anything else. There have already been calls for more money, more manpower, and more machines in response North Carolina’s election embarrassment, all of which will change very little with the same questionable processes in place.
Finally, this brings us to the most questionable response of all to the vote count troubles, the call for a change in state law which would allow early ballots to be counted earlier. Current law says election boards cannot start counting early ballots before 2 p.m. on election day. Sure, it sounds simple, give the counters more time to count. But this is not some arbitrary matter and again goes to heart of what the voting process is supposed to accomplish.
The process cannot be sound if the very act of counting votes influences the outcome. Count the early ballots a day or two early, or even hours too soon, and those early returns will inevitably leak out and quite possibly discourage supporters of the “losing” candidate from voting. The entire meaning of Election Day gets thrown into doubt if one candidate starts the day in the hole, with ballots already counted and in the books, not just cast, against him or her.
The voting process must result in clear, accurate results in a timely manner. It is a shame that did not happen this year in some jurisdictions, but it would be a tragedy to make things even worse before the next Election Day.