Stopping Voter Fraud: Do Costs Outweigh Benefits?
The costs of making sure everyone has the opportunity to vote and that the votes are counted accurately are a tremendous amount of money.
NC State political scientist Dr. Andy Taylor
Illustrations by Mark McLawhorn
By Mick Kulikowski, News Services
Voters cried foul after the last two presidential elections.
Democrats decried the butterfly ballots and hanging chads in Florida's close presidential election in 2000, as well as allegations of numbers of Democratic voters waiting all day to cast a ballot in Ohio's presidential election in 2004. Diehard conspiracy theorists point to partisan Republican secretaries of state in both states pulling strings behind the scenes to ensure Republican victories.
Meanwhile, Republicans traditionally allege that illegal aliens and other fraudulent voters thumb the scales to tilt margins in favor of Democrats. Many hearken back to the 1960 election and close races in Illinois – with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Democratic political machine allegedly encouraging voting "early and often" – and Texas providing the edge to John F. Kennedy.
Is voter fraud running rampant in national elections? If so, what can Americans do to stop it?
NC State political scientist Dr. Andy Taylor says that fraud claims are overstated.
"Although these types of allegations are frequent, we tend to exaggerate their number and the extent that they matter to election outcomes," he said.
Taylor says that – after the razor-close race in 2000 – a concerned Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 to eliminate punch-card ballots and establish standard voting administration procedures so votes can be counted more quickly and accurately.
The funding required to fully implement the new law, however, hasn't necessarily trickled down to states. Nor can the feds completely mandate how states hold elections.
"Historically, voting rights and the electoral process have been the domain of the states," Taylor says. "So you have 50 different sets of rules to govern elections. Even with the new law, you still have a hodgepodge of ballots.
"The costs of making sure everyone has the opportunity to vote and that the votes are counted accurately are a tremendous amount of money," he said. "Would the benefits be worthwhile? This is a multidimensional issue with competing interests on both sides."
Besides doing a cost-benefit analysis for elections, say Taylor and Dr. Steven Greene, an NC State political scientist who studies elections and voting, there are a few other options – putting the butterfly ballot to rest for good would be the first – for election officials.
"A good example of a cost-benefit analysis could be made here in Wake County, where we have the Scantron ballots that are very simple and cost-effective," Greene says. "Maybe more election officials can help people who are visually impaired or who have lost motor control, instead of buying expensive touch-screen voting machines that don't do the job as well."
The School of Public and International Affairs will host a conference on the future direction of election administration in North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 30. It is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by Research Triangle International, the conference, titled "Is North Carolina Ready for Election Day 2008? Casting and Counting Ballots in the Tar Heel State since Bush-Gore," will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. in Caldwell G107.