The Electoral Disaster Waiting to Happen

The election of 2000 was, of course, a disaster for this country (and the world)--but, says Paul Harris, things have actually gotten worse since 2000.

Of course what we need to do is establish an efficient system now, in a cool hour. What will, in fact, happen is that we'll wait until we have another disaster. (Query: who will win such an electoral knife-fight? Answer: the same guys who brought a gun to, and won, the last one...)

One thing Harris presupposes here is incorrect, though: it isn't true that we need a uniform system in order to have fair elections. As long as every method used is fair, it doesn't matter whether those methods are different. One district can use punch-card ballots and another can use scantron sheets--doesn't matter as long as both are good ways of doing it.