A long line of voters in Arizona.
As with every election, there were voting glitches on Super Tuesday -- reports of "invisible ink" in Illinois, problems for independents in California and more. And that doesn't even include the complications of caucuses.
A colleague in Savannah says she hasn't seen anybody have a problem producing an ID to cast a ballot. I haven't yet seen any reports out of Georgia of a problem. If that bears out, it will certainly bolster those who support voter ID, because they'll be able to say that it doesn't have any impact on turnout. The flip side is that, potentially, the people who didn't have ID simply didn't bother to go to vote. So it won't settle the argument, but at least this will give us a little more data. There isn't a lot of data. Both sides in the photo ID debate have spent more time knocking down each other's arguments than advancing their own.
Apparently, there were problems statewide with voters gaining access to the polls, according to the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-NJ), which reported that Hudson County, of which Jersey City is the county seat, was a special case. Even Gov. Jon Corzine was unable to vote at his Hudson County polling place in Hoboken because of problems with the voting machines, according to ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs, and was not offered a provisional ballot, as required by the state's election law. Instead, Jacobs wrote in a press release, Corzine was sent to another polling place. "When both advocates and members of the press called the Hudson County Superintendent of Elections to ask about Gov. Corzine's experience," according to the press release, "staff members hung up on them."
A beacon abroad?
After 9/11, a French newspaper famously declared that "we're all Americans now." But that warm feeling quickly dissipated. Now it's on the rise again, as citizens in countries around the world follow the 2008 election campaign as closely as they would races in their own country.
Can America restore its standing in the world? And what does the campaign have to do with it?
International progressives get scandalized if the United States intervenes in defense of liberty (their own, but also ours)outside their borders, but become sick with fear if the United States turns to isolation. They don't want the "enemy" to abandon them and yet they cling to him with desperation as a "friend."
The 2008 campaign has reminded the public overseas, and especially in allied countries, of the diversity and vibrancy of American democracy. It is hard for even the most hardened anti-American not to be impressed by the fact that the Democrats will nominate either an African-American or a women as their candidate, while watching this twisting and turning campaign play out gives the lie to the view that United States is some kind of corporate oligarchy.
Another piece of good news is that all three candidates with a realistic chance of being the next president play well abroad in a way that George W. Bush does not. Indeed, with a more pro-American leadership in Europe and the sting being drawn from Iraq by the success of the surge, the next president will have a real window of opportunity to chalk up some quick wins in 2009. The rest of the democratic world will be keen to show America that cooperating is worth its while.
