How to Run a Clean Election. What Mexico can teach the United States.

Opinionjournal.com ^ | 7/10/06

[Valin]

Mexico is likely to weather the controversy over its photo-finish election despite the protestors that losing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador brought into the streets on Saturday to claim the election had been stolen. Mexico's nonpartisan National Election Commission has built up a decade of credibility in running clean elections and international observers have certified the count as fair. Indeed, in its successful efforts to overcome its old reputation for corrupt vote-counting Mexico has a lot to teach the United States.

Mexico has developed an elaborate system of safeguards to prevent voter fraud. Absentee ballots, which are cast outside the view of election officials and represent the easiest way to commit fraud, are much harder to apply for than in the U.S. Voters must present a valid voter ID card with a photo and imbedded security codes. After they cast a ballot voters--just like those famously pictured in Iraq last year--also have a finger or thumb dipped in indelible purple ink to prevent them from voting again.

In the U.S. opponents of such anti-fraud measures as photo ID laws claim they will disenfranchise many voters and reduce voter turnout. But John Lott, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, notes that in the three presidential elections Mexico has conducted since the National Election Commission reformed the election laws "68% of eligible citizens have voted, compared to only 59% in the three elections prior to the rule changes." People are more likely to vote if they believe their ballot will be fairly counted.

[Valin]

I no longer vote. If I vote, I am part of the problem.

Don't vote? Then shut up! You have no reason to complain.

[RobRoy]

>>Don't vote? Then shut up! You have no reason to complain.<<

Even if the election was stolen from the person I voted for.

But I don't complain. I merely understand that I live in a state that is not governed by the rule of law, and live my life accordingly.

[Valin]

I live in a state that is not governed by the rule of law

Then DO something about it.

I just get (more than) a little tired of people complaining and then say I don't vote.

[RobRoy]

To use the title of a recently published book: "What to do when it is too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards".

I believe we are in that "netherland". First step - stop the futile attempt to work within the system. Second step...

[LibertarianInExile]

"Actually..that is why so many mexicans cross the border illegally..they want to show Americans how to run clean elections.."

Ah, c'mon, they're not just working elections, they're doing the voting Americans won't.

[LibertarianInExile]

"Don't laugh it off so lightly. In Mexico they require: Photo ID's for voting, matched against photo on voter registration lists at each polling station. Indelible ink is applied after voting, thus assuring one vote only. Proof of citizenship is required prior to registration. We lack all of the above."

And if you think they're tough there, you should see their emigration requirements. /sarc

[Michael.SF.]

And if you think they're tough there, you should see their emigration requirements. /sarc

But I would take their immigration laws over ours.

[LibertarianInExile]

"But I would take their immigration laws over ours."

You and me both. Why is it we can't even implement immigration laws less stringent than Mexico's? I'm sure it's because our representatives in the federal government are too concerned about national security to do something about uncontrolled border-hopping. /sarc

[caver]

Yes, I read the article. It does have some good points and the some things that the US should do. The reason I made the comment was the article's title. I don't think Mexico has anything to teach the US. The US already knows what should be done to stop election fraud, but unfortunately the libs here don't want any part of it.