Penn set to study electoral fairness

Despite the 50-odd commissions that have originated to tackle election reform, the Fels Center of Government -- by proposing a national voting fairness index -- hopes to finally find success in number 51. And an internationally recognized leader on election fairness demonstrated how much the United States still has to learn about elections by looking abroad. On Friday, Fels Director Lawrence Sherman announced the formation of the Fels Voting Index, which will track errors in vote tallying across the country. The project will present the results in a yearly report to the nation. "This is a chance for the Fels Center to provide the key performance measurement for our democracy," Sherman said. Scholars and political officials from both parties met on Friday to help advise Fels students and faculty on the index's development. Researchers will begin combing through election results this summer. "We live in an era of close elections in which what happened in Florida last fall has become a frequent occurrence in state and local elections," Sherman said. "As long as elections are close, our governments need to ensure that votes are counted with even more accuracy than found in banks counting money." The index will begin by grading states on criteria including the number of under- and over-counts and the uniformity of voter registration systems. Sherman hopes that the funding, which is still being sought, will allow for scrutiny on the county level as well. Many of the other commissions are focusing on specific improvements, like improved voting machine technology. The Fels effort hopes to be the impetus. "Once these rankings get published, the states and counties at the bottom of the list will make the media and voters in these communities demand improvements," said Annenberg School for Communication Fellow David Eisenhower, who is collaborating on the project. "The U.S. News [and World Report] practice of ranking colleges and universities has made big changes in the quality of higher education," Eisenhower said. "The Fels Voting Index could do the same for the quality of democracy." Emory University Political Science Professor Robert Pastor, who has worked to advance the cause of worldwide free and fair elections with former President Jimmy Carter for the past 15 years, came to Penn on Friday to put the Fels proposal in perspective. Pastor addressed about 20 students after meeting to discuss the voting index. "There are many people who believe that democracy should be more than free and fair elections, but it can't be any less," Pastor said during his speech. In countries where democracy was once deemed to be impossible, such as Nicaragua and Mexico, Pastor intervened as part of an international team to help increase democratic practices. With the number of democratic countries having increased by a third in the last 30 years, the United States has much to learn from these other countries, he said. "The most implausible of all scenarios occurred in the year 2000, when a free and fair election judged credible by all of the parties in Mexico occurred at the same time that our own election was questioned by the political parties," Pastor said. Past elections gone awry in Panama and Jamaica have resulted in many deaths, Pastor said. However, he added that has not been the case in the U.S. yet. "When you have a margin of technical error that exceeds the margin of difference between the victor, you have a recipe for a very serious problem," he said. "In the U.S. we have a different technique for dealing with this problem. We send in the only species in Florida more dangerous than sharks -- they're called lawyers." Pastor explained that problems with the American political process extended beyond Election Day and included a "rotten" campaign finance procedure. "Is Canada any less democratic than us for conducting its election in 36 days at a cost of $50 million, as opposed to our presidential election which goes on for four years and costs $3 billion?" Pastor said, noting the American elections are essentially continuous. The United States also lags behind other countries in terms of voter turnout -- especially among young people. Only about 55 percent of Americans vote, compared to up to 65 percent in other industrialized democracies, Pastor said. "I think the big thing is just awareness that problems exist," said Master of Government Administration student David Reed. "This past election really made people step back and realize the types of problems out there -- and that they don't just happen in town council or school board elections."