What if We Held an Election and Everyone Came?

The Washington-based group set out a long series of problems still facing the US despite reforms aimed at avoiding a repeat of the 2000 and 2004 debacles.

The launch of the 77-page report came as legal clashes over voter registration and hours-long queues formed outside booths set up for early voting in states across the US. Voting is now underway in 46 of the 50 states, though election day is still almost a fortnight away.
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Doug Chapin, director of Pew's electionline.org, said: "People talk about meltdown. It is over-optimistic to think that 130 million people can vote and something does not go wrong ... We have spent eight years sorting the plumbing, but on November 4 we are going to crank up the system."
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Yesterday's report, Election preview 2008: what if we had an election and everyone came?, says: "Eight years after the uncovered problems in the 2000 election and more than five years after the creation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, millions of Americans will head to the polls on November 4 in what many are predicting will be the highest-turnout election in recent memory.

"Like the infamous Nor'easter that sank the Andrea Gail, another perfect storm may be brewing, only this one has the potential to combine a record turnout with an insufficient number of poll workers and a voting system still in flux."

Election officials are struggling in some places to recruit the tens of thousands of extra staff that will be needed.

Election officials are struggling in some places to recruit the tens of thousands of extra staff that will be needed.

Another problem for election officials is the electronic voting systems introduced in many states after the "hanging chads" controversy in Florida in 2000.