Here's another guest post from Ben Geyerhahn in Pennslyvania. As a lawyer, he's been called there to, amongst other things, prepare for election day mishaps and legal needs. His sentiments echo a concern that I've voiced with increasing frequency over the past couple of months. The "whatever is in the best interests of our country's democracy" attitude is no longer in effect, in my mind. Both sides will fight tooth and nail in the event of any sort of questionable voting practices, as is too be expected given the amount of personal and financial capital that has been invested in this election. Let's hope we have a decisive election.
Welcome to the Apocalypse: Election Legal Wars
by Ben Geyerhahn
Its almost cliché to say that the nation is deeply divided these days so everyone keeps asking what happens if things aren’t decided on November 2, 2004. In my view, failure to select a president on November 2 would be a disaster.
The nation is truly divided, but not in the way you may think. It is cleft in three. There are Democrats, Republicans and the rest. The remaining group pays less attention to politics either because they’re indifferent or because they are disgusted by the rancor of politics. Many of these folks believe that all politicians are crooks, and the dirty little secret of politics is that both sides encourage this belief.
Each side attacks and runs negative advertisements to convince the other guy’s undecided voters that all politicians are bad guys and drive these voters away from the process. After all, convincing the other guy’s voters to stay home is just as good as getting your own folks to the polls. Going Negative by Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar describe this phenomenon in heartbreaking detail.
What does all this have to do with an Election Day legal war? In all likelihood, this election will result in record turnout. I believe that as much as 60% of the electorate may turn out. These levels haven’t been reached since the 60s. For the first time in decades, people are engaging. As a partisan, I believe this is a good signal for Democrats and will avoid an Election Day train wreck, but if it doesn’t the legal war will be nasty.
Nearly a billion dollars has been invested in this election and thousands and thousands of man-hours have been logged. People and institutions have incredible personal and financial commitments in this election that they will not easily give up. Additionally, unlike 2000, both sides foresee conflict and are preparing for it.
The result of such a war is beyond my vision, except for this; it will not be good for voters. I believe it will further divide us, and drive even more people away from the process. The legacy of this election should be that the people looked long and hard at these candidates, that each side was passionate about its views, expressed those views on election day and that we decided who would lead us in a voice clear enough that it did not require judicial interpretation. Anything short of that would be a disaster.
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