Election Year...Literally

John Fund with the depressing idea that if the races are as close as people are saying, we may not know the results for awhile.

Recounts and even seating challenges in Congress could stretch on for weeks--another endless election. "We're waiting for the day that pols can cut out the middleman and settle all elections in court," jokes the political newsletter Hotline.
"In 2000 in Florida, we broke a psychic barrier," says Doug Chapin, director of the nonpartisan Election Reform Information Project. "Election night is not necessarily the finish line anymore. Both sides are lawyering up." Indeed, in 1998 the number of court cases challenging elections totaled 104, by 2004 that number had climbed to 361.

Yet another reason it's important to reclaim the judiciary for the rule of law. Meanwhile, I'm voting in Maryland, where the Governor et al have asked everyone to vote absentee because the new legally-mandated electronic voting machines are unreliable. And the news reported last night that many districts don't have enough ballots...I know mine hasn't come in yet and I requested it weeks ago. A sure way to depress turnout is to announce in advance that your vote literally won't count. Fund writes about that too.