Have asked yourself why the United States has not figured out how to hold a “bullet proof” election where the winner is actually the individual chosen by those that voted?

We’ve landed men on the moon, transplanted hearts and built computers that fit in the palm of your hand but have yet to achieve a problem-free voting system that does the job.

America’s arrogance always leads us to believe that we know better and do things better than the rest of the civilized world. This would include the holding of elections proven by the fact the we are asked to oversee them in other countries.

The Carter Center’s Democracy Program has overseen 71 elections in 28 countries which interesting enough does not include the Unites States. WHY?

Well, first of all, The Center requires an invitation from the government, head of state, and/or the election authority in order to get involved…. an act our ‘arrogance’ would never allow. The Center has, however, accepted requests to serve on blue-ribbon commissions to examine the operation of U.S. elections which, as we now know, has not changed a thing including the level of confidence in our election process which is at an all-time low!

As important as the election process is in our democracy, couple with the technological know-how available to us, there must be a pretty interesting reason why we (Americans) do not insist on a solution……..RIGHT NOW!

Our neighbor, Canada, seems to have little problems with their Federal elections. Could a solution to our dilemma be right across our northern border? Let’s take a look…..

CANADA

Canada’s electoral system has evolved in response to the country’s geography which is spread over an immense land mass spanning six time zones. As a result, some electoral districts are huge and sparsely populated.

Elections Canada is the non-partisan agency responsible for the conduct of elections in Canada, including federal elections and is headed by the Chief Electoral Officer.

Helping to remove obstacles to voting is an important part of Elections Canada’s work. Voters who are not able to vote on polling day can vote at the advance polls and in special cases, electors with a disability may vote at home, in the presence of an election officer. Mobile polls serve voters living in certain institutions, such as nursing homes for people who are elderly or who have a disability.

Now this is the best part – All votes are made on the same standard heavy paper ballot which is inserted in a standard cardboard box, furnished by Elections Canada. The ballot and the box are devised to ensure that no one except the elector knows the individual choice that was made. Counting the ballots is done by hand in full view of the representatives of each candidate. There are no mechanical, electrical or electronic systems involved in this process.

Starting January 1, 2007, corporations and trade unions were forbidden to make contributions to any political entities. To fund an election campaign, candidates are given an allowance that amounts to $1.75 per vote annually, and is adjusted for inflation.

The length of election campaigns can vary, but under the Canada Elections Act the minimum length of a campaign is 36 days. There is no explicit maximum length for a campaign, however the longest election campaign was the 1926 election following the King-Byng Affair which lasted 74 days.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Now, the Canadian system for holding national elections couldn’t be that simple, could it? Absolutely! All we have to do is nationalize the process, remove the politics and revert back to ‘good old’ paper and a #2 pencil. That’s it!

Oh, and did I tell you that most times Canadians have their national election results one hour after the polls close?

AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE:

Groups Warn Election Officials About Diebold Voting Machine Flaw - Several election watch dog groups have sent an advisory to election officials warning them about a problem with Premier Election Solutions’ vote tabulating software that could cause the system to lose votes. ...

Open source: How e-voting should be done - Premier Election Solutions recently advised that its machines lost votes in Ohio primaries due to an incompatibility with McAfee's anti-virus software. In the words of XKCD, someone is clearly doing their job horribly wrong. ...

Vote flipping and the business of voting machines - [Chris] Riggall [spokesman for Premier Election Solutions] said he isn’t familiar with the design history behind the machines, but noted that new models aren’t being designed now because optical-scanning systems that use paper ballots ...

Stolen Elections And Media Blackouts - Specifically, he has named Mike Connell, who has been helping Karl Rove steal elections since Florida, 2000. Connell is the head of a company called GOVTECH Solutions. If you check out a piece by Rebecca Abrahams on the destruction of ...