Lucia

de Vernai

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November 3, 2008

Hoping For Better Election Photo-Ops Than We Got in 2000

The 2000 election was ingeniously captured by a photojournalist’s shot of a Florida re-count worker applying eye drops after hours of counting pregnant chads. Eight years later, the high emotions and novelty of that situation have worn off, late-night show jokes put to bed and Al Gore awarded with an Oscar and Nobel Prize to soothe his pain. But while the American electoral system has supposedly been cured of the ills that caused the electoral dysfunction then, there are still plenty of potential Election Day disaster photo-ops.

The dark past of American voter disenfranchisement has lost its importance in the election year when, for the first time, a woman and a man of color were leading contenders in a presidential race. For the first time in the history of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama represents the traits low-income minority voters have always identified with: Ivy League education and a penchant for changing cars to match campaign goals. In all the excitement about a black candidate making it to the party’s ticket, these facts have somehow given previously disenfranchised populations hope for a political system that gives them their due.

Whether that hope turns into reform remains undetermined, but presently the practice of discouraging minority voters with false information and illegitimate threats continues. In Pennsylvania, one of the highly contested states in this election, a yet-unidentified anonymous group has been distributing pamphlets claiming that when voters show their ID at the polling place, their outstanding traffic tickets and other trespasses will be cross-referenced and they will be held accountable. The information is obviously untrue, but can still cause voters from the districts where the pamphlets were distributed – all lower income, mostly minority neighborhoods – to keep away from polling places.

Although not racially motivated, another potential Election Day problem is the lack of enough polling places in an election with the largest expected turnout in decades. The long lines are going to cause frustration, traffic congestion and if you live in states with extreme weather conditions – from Minnesota’s predicted snow to Arizona’s expected high of 90 degrees – are bound to cause many voters suffering from health conditions, with kids in need of pickup at the soccer game or late for work to walk out on civic duty.

We are not a patient nation or one willing to make those special sacrifices to cast our ballot. Some counties are expecting big trouble as constituents try to find their polling places en route to the voting booth. In states where electronic voting systems are bound to baffle some voters, and considering that many will misplace or forget their voter IDs and hold back lines fishing for that other electricity bill to prove their identity, Tuesday is bound to show if the social animal can be the political animal at the same time.

Before the dailies come out with the grinning shots of the victorious party above the fold, and teary-eyed concession speeches get captured on film, let’s hope that the image of American democracy in 2008 doesn’t include eye drops, citizens kept away from the voting booth by fear – or a polling place riot.

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