Success! No Major Election Meltdown!

The verdict is in: Our election system bent but did not break yesterday, and while there were plenty of incidents (see VoteWatch) and stories of people waiting for as long as seven hours to vote (Virginia seems to hold the record), no single flashpoint has emerged. Given the trepidation that something would go horribly wrong yesterday, no catastrophic news is good news. But for some watchdogs, the news wasn’t good enough:

“The problem remains that we have a system that is set up for low turnout, which is why there were such long lines, ballot shortages and machine breakdowns,” said Jonah H. Goldman, a lawyer with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, adding that from initial estimates the problems did not seem serious enough in any single state to change the outcome of the election. “Unfortunately, anything short of a major meltdown in voting is portrayed as a success.”

Of course, the election isn’t really all over yet: The presidential returns in Missouri and North Carolina are still being counted. A number of Senate races are too close to call, and there seems to be uncertainty in Georgia of just how many ballots, especially early and absentee, remain to be counted.

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