Why Do We Even Let Florida Vote?

BBC Sez:
Tens of thousands of postal ballots have gone missing in the state of Florida, sparking fresh fears of irregularities in the US poll campaign.

Authorities are investigating the apparent loss of 58,000 absentee forms in Broward County while officials have said replacements are being sent out.
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The missing ballots have fuelled an atmosphere of intense suspicion in Florida, with Democrats already backing nine separate lawsuits in the state, says the BBC’s Justin Webb in Washington.

If the outcome is close and decides the result in the presidential race – and both of those eventualities are perfectly possible – it seems virtually certain that protracted legal battles will follow, our correspondent says.

Electoral officials in Broward County say they will send more ballots after being overwhelmed by calls from would-be voters, unable to get to the polls, who fear that their votes have been stolen.

A police investigation into the missing ballots has not uncovered any indication of criminal wrongdoing.

The US postal service inspectorate said it was highly unlikely that 58,000 pieces of mail had just disappeared.

A spokesman said inspectors were trying to establish whether the ballots were ever delivered to the postal service.
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Voting rights activists in Florida say the state could also face acute problems with vote-counting and the process of casting ballots in next week’s election.

Early voting, which has been going on for more than a week, shows that new electronic voting machine technology is much slower than the old punch-card method, the BBC’s Daniel Lak reports from Miami.

A high turnout could mean huge delays, our correspondent says.

Other concerns include accusations of voter intimidation by party representatives outside polling stations during the early voting.

Let’s see. 58,000 pieces of mail *suddenly dissapear*. None of those people are going to be able to send in another absentee ballot – we only have 3 days till the election. Why were 58,000 people all of a sudden disenfranchised? Should we really even be allowing people in Florida to vote?