Among those professionals who count votes for a living, there’s always a secret hope for elections to be landslides. Close elections stress our democracy — in every sense of the word. I learned this early in my career, taking a job out of college covering politics for my hometown paper in easy-to-overlook Lake County, Florida in the year 2000.

We didn’t write much about the presidential election there. The high point was supposed to be when Dick Cheney swung through The Villages. But most readers would guess how the race came to dominate life after the vote was in. The next 36 days saw recounts and court fights which turned every county elections office into a battlefront in an internationally watched democratic war. In the end, George W. Bush won the state by 537 votes over Al Gore, securing the necessary electoral votes for president.

As America watches another presidential election, one not nearly as close but still creating work for election attorneys, recounts are once again in the news with cries for scrutiny, courtroom maneuvering and, inevitably, skepticism among those whose candidate came up short. Friday saw networks call the final states, with Joe Biden’s total at 306 electoral votes and Donald Trump’s at 232, but many of his supporters doubt the results. Beyond the desperate hope for an impossible turnaround on which many, including Trump himself, continue to cling, this close election created fresh headaches for elections officials in states won by less a percentage point. Florida managed to avoid running that gantlet. But perhaps this election, like 2000, can yet produce positives for democracy.

Election reform is hard. Those who make decisions about our laws are chosen using systems that may be flawed, but it’s difficult to explain that to those emerging victorious. But after 2000, Florida had no choice. We had flawed voting systems — hanging chads anyone? When votes were challenged, there were subjective rules. And when decisions were made, it proved difficult for everyone not to judge merits based on which candidate benefitted.

Lawmakers in Florida later developed stricter, more uniform rules for how people vote and disputes get settled. No reforms are perfect, but there were suddenly rules when recounts get triggered, by hand and by machine. A roadmap for challenging results was developed.

Two years ago, that system faced its greatest test since 2000 as Florida held three statewide recounts, including for Governor and Senate. Problems still arose. It took too long to count an uncertain number of ballots in large Florida counties, and poor ballot design in Broward may have impacted the Senate race in ways we can only wonder, the same as the butterfly ballot 20 years ago. Issues were litigated in court. But for the most part, results were clean and clear, albeit close.

New problems were exposed this year in other states. The pandemic forced everyone to offer vote-by-mail. Florida has offered no-questions absentee and early voting for more than a decade. Other states made it up on the fly. And while Florida learned long ago to count mail ballots before polls close, many states put the large stack last in the vote pile. But all this can be fixed, by the state or through federal guidelines. Accuracy must never be compromised by speed when counting votes, but rules everyone agrees upon in advance can ensure final counts faster, leaving less time for speculation.

Every crisis provides an opportunity. Leaders must take advantage of this one.

Oh and by the way, thanks to Florida being able to provide detailed results in a timely fashion, SRQ can provide its analysis more quickly as well. Our Where The Votes Are  ZOOM analysis of the general election will be held this coming Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 8:30am. Mark your calendars—your choice whether you use a pencil or a Sharpie.

Click here to register for the November 19th Where the Votes Are virtual presentation.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA. 

Image courtesy Wikimedia

Civic engagement is part of the New College ethos. Throughout our six-decade history, our campus community has been known for its political initiative and engagement. We’ve even won awards for it.

And this year—during one of the tensest election cycles in modern history, not to mention in the middle of a pandemic—our students represented New College with incredible passion. They rallied their peers. They raised awareness. They reeled in votes.

“I haven’t met a student yet at New College who isn’t passionate about the most recent political issues,” says Cristiana Feazell, a second-year student involved in the nationwide Campus Vote Project—a voter education program coordinated through New College’s office of Student Activities & Campus Engagement (SA[u]CE).

“New College, as an institution, supports the intellectually curious, and that leaves room for students to be engaged politically in multiple ways,” says SA[u]CE Assistant Director Jada McNeill. “One of the earliest things I learned from working at New College is how big advocacy is for students. I really do learn a lot from students about what’s happening locally, nationally and globally.”

Jada is absolutely right, and the world has noticed. Our students have won numerous awards for their political initiative and voter turnout. Two years ago, New College received national accolades from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for its high level of student voting during the 2018 election (nearly two-thirds of students voted). We earned a platinum seal from ALL IN for achieving a student voting rate above 50%, as well as three “Best in Class Awards” for the highest voting rate among all participating small, public, four-year institutions.

This fall, McNeill has been nudging students to further amplify their voices in political matters, reminding them that the largest share of eligible voters in 2020 have come from the Millennial or Generation Z age group. She and her staff created New College’s Voting Information Center and partnered with TurboVote to make it easier than ever for students to register, gather absentee ballots and meet primary deadlines.

Marina Sidlow, a second-year student, helped host a semi-virtual event for National Voter Registration Day in September—inspiring students to vote as the fall semester at New College began.

“Seeing student participation in activism at New College has given me a lot of hope for the future of our society—whether it be students organizing groups to attend a local protest or creating our own protests on campus for school-related issues,” Sidlow says. “Political activism is so important to me because it is the most substantial way to create change in our society. As individuals, we may not feel like we have a lot of power to bring about real social change, but we cannot ignore the power of the vote in bringing about that change.”

Rory Renzy, a thesis student in political science and economics, is the chapter president of Democracy Matters at New College. With the campus chapter of the nonpartisan national student group, Renzy has coordinated petitioning efforts focused on getting corporate money out of politics, and he has organized on-campus events to engage students in topics such as ranked-choice voting and open primaries. He also led an effort to collect petitions across campus for Florida’s “Say Yes to Second Chances” campaign for voter rights restoration, which succeeded and appeared on the November 2018 ballot.

“I know a lot of students, myself included, can feel powerless at times, especially when they come into contact with powerful interests that seem to get their way all of the time. But I think the political tide is turning a little bit, and young people are actively aware of the pull they can have in politics, which is reassuring and inspiring in many ways,” Renzy says. “I really find pride in going to a school that has won national awards for voter registration and turnout for a college campus. New College has a lot of political energy that, when channeled in the right ways, can be a force to be reckoned with in the local community.”

I couldn’t agree more. I believe wholeheartedly in our students. Every day, they are making our world better. And they are making us so proud.

Donal O’Shea is president of New College of Florida. 

Image courtesy New College of Florida.