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Wiki-ing our way to better elections

By Jack M. Balkin

A few months ago, I blogged about a new strategy for "popular monitoring of popular elections" ? Harvard professor Archon Fung's proposal for harnessing the power of the wiki to monitor election problems by creating "a real-time 'weather map' of voting conditions across the country." The site is now up and running, and I urge Balkinization readers to check it out. By enabling thousands of citizens to rate their voting experiences and identify problems, the site should be extremely helpful for election officials and campaigns trying to prevent modest glitches from developing into genuine problems, while enabling reporters to do a better job of reporting on conditions on the ground. Very few election systems in the U.S. have the capacity to engage in real-time monitoring, but myfairelection.com could well develop into such a system.

In addition to these practical advantages, myfairelection.com may help with the core problem in election reform -- it's tough to get reform passed. One of the main reasons election reform is hard to pass is that election problems are largely invisible to the average voter. Discarded ballots, long lines, machine breakdowns, registration problems -- these all occur routinely during the election process. But voters only become aware of these problems when a race is close enough for the problem to affect the outcome. Given that most races are not competitive, that's a bit like tracking annual rainfall by counting how often lightening strikes. Because voters learn about election administration problems in a haphazard, episodic fashion, politicians have no incentive to pay attention to them unless there's what Rick Hasen calls an "electoral meltdown."

The magic of Fung's idea is that it makes election problems visible even in the absence of an electoral meltdown. If enough people participated so that coverage is thorough and consistent -- and that?s a big ?if,? as Fung recognizes -- the site would be a great way to draw people's attention to routine election problems.

Blogs like that Talking Points Memo, DailyKos, and Ben Smith's Politico blog should also take notice of this site. These blogs took advantage of reader reporting to find out what was happening on the ground during the primaries. Myfairelection.com should be able to offer a more systematic take, especially if high traffic blogs like these encourage their own readers to take part.

There will obviously be a number of kinks to work out for this site, as I noticed in my first post. But myfairelection.com is a step in the right direction, and I wish Archon Fung and co-sponsor ABC News the best of luck.

Full post as published by Balkinization on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).