As we peek into North Dakota, an intriguing proposal is stirring up the serenity of the prairie. Its ambition? Begin the era of manual ballot counting, stepping back from digital ballot scanners to once-obsolete methods, flipping the pages back to times when human dexterity was an integral part of the voting process. If this idea sounds like a gauntlet hurled at modernity's face, it might just be the understatement of the decade.
Activists distrustful of machine-led counting have been waiting in the wings, and now they're presented with the tantalizing possibility of seeing their goal achieved. Yet, election officials are looking nervously at the unplowed path ahead, foreseeing delayed vote tallies and a larger room for errors.
Captaining the ship of this audacious proposal is Lydia Gessele, a North Dakota farmer who raises an intriguing argument: we've always hand-counted before machines took over. Can we find the people to do the job? Why not! The good folks of North Dakota are only too willing to bring back the romance of hand counting, or so she argues.
The motivation behind the change comes from quite the cocktail of factors, including alleged inaccuracies of the ballot scanners and an unfortunate power outage that kept people of Bismarck from voting. And while former Secretary of State Al Jaeger staunchly refutes the claims as trifles that wouldn't have changed the outcome, there's no denying that this proposal has people talking.
The North Dakota proposition falls in line with the wave of skepticism against voting machines that has swept along allies of former President Trump, though it has elicited its share of controversy. Yet opposition hasn’t brought the proposal to a grinding halt. In fact, it's gathering quite a bit of steam and is hurtling towards North Dakota's June 2024 ballot.
Should this plan pass, the Peace Garden State will swap digital scanners for industrious humans meticulously counting and recounting ballots. This shift might leave the state wandering into uncharted territory—where no other state has ventured before, with hand counts blazing the trail for a new old era.
However, the proposal stands on shaky legs. It fails to specify a process or a source of funding for the labor-intensive task. With North Dakota's 53 counties each shouldering the responsibility for their poll workers and polling locations, the path ahead looks muddled and cost-heavy.
Does the idea of a human rather than a computer umpiring the election sound appealing? Well, not according to Secretary of State Michael Howe. He argues that the precision lost in transitioning from scanners makes the system more susceptible to inconsistencies.
Opponents often point at the struggles other counties have faced while implementing hand-counting requirements. For example, in Nevada's least populated county, it took more than seven long hours to hand count a mere 317 ballots.
Yet, despite the issues, the proposal has inspired discussion and reflection. If passed, it will allow any U.S. citizen to verify or audit North Dakota elections, and mandate that all voting is complete only on Election Day. While some may view it as a quixotic quest to bring back the old ways, it stands as a testament to the ongoing debate about electoral integrity in the digital age. Only time will tell if the delicate slant of handwriting on paper ballots will replace the hum of machines in North Dakota.
