The Indy Star has an editorial that ought to be a no brainer: Every legally cast vote should be counted. At issue for this particular editorial is the race between Ed Mahern and Jon Elrod for state representative. Currently Elrod leads by 5. There are four provisional ballots outstanding — they present their own issues which I won’t get into at the moment. But there are 3 absentee ballots cast before Election Day that won’t count because the Election Board was unable to deliver them to the polling place in time for counting.
That’s messed up. I suppose you don’t want folks at the election board waiting until they know the vote totals before “finding” enough absentee ballots to swing an election. But there are probably other mechanisms for thwarting that kind of thing. Simply put, if a citizen does what he or she is required to do to cast a vote, that vote should be counted. Period.
When I read that this morning, I was shocked. I had no idea that it was common for absentee votes to go uncounted. There is something wrong with the voting process in America. All over America.