In Search of a Perfect Election.

• Author: Storey, Tim

After the election of 2000, calls for reforming how we vote are ringing throughout state legislatures.

Just when you thought you had seen it all, the never-ending 2000 election took place. The vocabulary of average Americans expanded to include new terms like dimpled chad, butterfly ballot and Votomatic. Pundits were actually at a loss for words to sum it all up, but TV made them keep talking. And Americans began to scratch their heads and ask, "Is there a better way?"

States are now in a period of intense post-election evaluation like never before. Calls for reform are resounding in just about every single state capitol. What can be done to halt the decline in voter turnout? Should we vote on a different day? Is it possible to conduct a perfect election?

Curtis Gans of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate is also sounding the alarm. The 2000 voter turnout was only 50.7 percent of the eligible voters, he says, up slightly from the woeful 49.1 percent turnout in 1996. Voter turnout numbers have been on the decline for more than 40 years. It will be some time before a state-by-state report is completed, but early indications are that turnout declined in most states despite the overheated (though still lackluster) sprint for the White House. Only in the "battleground" states that received numerous presidential candidate visits did turnout actually improve markedly. And all of this was notwithstanding a massive get-out-the-vote effort by unions, the National Association of Colored People and GOP groups. The 50 percent also included Oregon where the convenience of vote by mail resulted in more than 80 percent of registered voters casting ballots. Gans bemoans the fact that half of American voters continue to stay at home on Election Day.

As blue ribbon task forces and special commissions are forming around the country to examine the elections process, they have plenty to consider. From voting early at the supermarket to voting on Saturday, legislators and reformers have some innovative options.

But the election reform that is perhaps the most provocative is Internet voting. The Internet is far past the novelty stage and is beginning to permeate all aspects of society. Many Americans now routinely turn to it to shop or find out how to cure common ailments. Forrester Research estimates that more than 20 million households did their holiday gift buying online last year. Other estimates are that nearly 60 percent of American...