‘Result by violence, not by voting’: House majority leader’s concerns over voting system legitimacy – analysis
In this Friday, July 1, 2018 photo, voters cast their ballots at a polling place, in New Jersey. Political analysts are concerned that voting machines will not be able to identify voters properly this election cycle because of changes to the national voting system that are expected to result in “machines with no memory,” as voters will have to re-enter their choices each time. less In this Friday, July 1, 2018 photo, voters cast their ballots at a polling place, in New Jersey. Political analysts are concerned that voting machines will not be able to identify voters properly this election… more Photo: AP Photo: AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Result by violence, not by voting: House majority leader’s concerns over voting system legitimacy 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election day came, and the lines moved slowly. By the time it was over, they were still standing.
In a nation where more than a half-moon between political parties and candidates is an American custom as old as time, it would be hard to find a more telling illustration of the way U.S. politics have changed.
This wasn’t just about how your neighbors voted. It was also about which candidate you voted for and how your vote played out. It wasn’t clear whether that happened because the numbers on the ballot didn’t match up or because of some kind of technical glitch.
“We have the votes and we don’t know how to count them,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan. “What we got out of this election, though, is an acknowledgement that we have a very, very bad problem in this country.”
In the 2016 presidential election, the nation’s political parties and their supporters were still sorting through post-election chaos in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the anthrax attacks of 2001. The American people still had no coherent idea how their election worked — including, of course, how to read the ballot.
As a result, the system of election has never been more unsettled. And it’s far from settled enough to determine how the vote should be counted in the future.
A new national voting system that will replace the outdated, manual paper-filing system will determine the process and the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. It’s a system that Republicans are calling “