Election adjustments are needed

We're glad to see that Flathead County Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson is putting together a task force in preparation for the 2008 primary and general elections. As the race for president heats up, it's bound to be an active year for voters and the county needs to be ready for the onslaught.

It's encouraging, too, that Robinson has acknowledged the election department's shortcomings in recent years and has vowed to "keep working to get it right." Even Third World countries delivering ballots by camel or dipping voters' fingers in purple ink seem to have an easier time of it than Flathead County.

A combination of mechanical and human errors have put the Flathead on the map as one of the last counties to tally its ballots in the last few elections.

In the 2004 presidential election, the counting went on for 16 hours after polls closed. That was the year the vote-counting computer program hadn't been double-checked beforehand and repairs had to be ordered in the middle of the night from Texas.

In 2006, the Flathead had problems again, but wasn't the only county in Montana to struggle with long lines of last-minute voters. All of America waited that election night for the Big Sky state to deliver results in the crucial Tester-Burns Senate race. A record number of absentee ballots were partly to blame, but once again election computer software beguiled election workers.

Omaha-based Election Systems & Software is the only company certified to sell election software in Montana and must be held accountable for its equipment. During the Flathead's general election last year a representative of the software company couldn't correct a glitch in the computer memory cards and the company's hot line couldn't walk officials through the snafu. We hope those problems have been resolved.

This year the glitches came in different forms, again a blend of errors by machines and their operators. Election officials made a bad choice by selecting a scanning machine that's typically used at the precinct level and isn't designed to handle large amounts of ballots. The machine jammed and didn't count roughly 200 ballots, affecting the outcome of a close Whitefish City Council race. A different machine got different results the following day and a hand recount is scheduled Monday.

Trust in our election system is at stake here. Election officials said afterward they wished they'd gone with their "gut feeling" and recounted votes that night. Maybe so. The public has to have confidence that the system works and is fair.

Many Montana counties are still struggling with the relatively new late-voter registration law. The law certainly encourages more people to vote, but it also fosters procrastination. Election officials must find a way to accommodate the latecomers and still tally ballots in a timely manner.

The countdown for the 2008 election has already begun, so time is of the essence, Flathead County. We're all counting on you to get it right.