Porkopolis

Most Americans won't admit it, but the United States could learn a thing or two about democracy and holding better elections from other nations.

As Democrats met this week in Denver to formally nominate Barack Obama as their presidential candidate, one of the other people grabbing headlines in the Mile High City was Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Brunner, whose job is to oversee Ohio's elections, spoke at a panel about the challenges she faces to improve the voting process and avoid the mistakes made by state officials during the badly managed 2004 presidential showdown between incumbent George W. Bush and John Kerry. (See "Making Every Vote Count," issue of July 23.)

Bush won reelection four years ago thanks to Ohio's 20 electoral votes, and Dubya won in the Buckeye State only by a razor-thin 2.1 percent margin over Kerry. Rightly or wrongly, many voters were skeptical of the results thanks to widespread problems like some people being wrongly purged from voter rolls, a few highly populated areas not receiving enough voting machines and a sizeable turnout that led to some voters waiting hours in line to cast their ballots.

This time, turnout is expected to be even higher in Ohio — approaching 80 percent. With that in mind, Brunner tried to reassure Democrats that she's put enough reforms in place to improve upon the shoddy performance of her predecessor, Republican (and Cincinnati native) Ken Blackwell.

Those changes include improving the chain-of-custody procedures for ballots as they're transported from polling places to the various county boards of elections. And voters in the 50 or so Ohio counties that still use electronic voting machines — proven to be vulnerable to glitches and hacking — will have the option of asking for a paper ballot.

Still, Brunner didn't abolish the use of e-voting machines when she took office in 2007. She's said it would be an unfunded mandate on the counties, costing them millions of dollars, and so far state lawmakers have refused to ante up any money for the replacement expense.

At this point, reasonable Americans must ask themselves if this is any way to hold an election.

Americans rightfully demand a minimum set of national standards for items like the quality of their food and drugs, highway signage and even how someone can declare bankruptcy, but we've left the selection of our commander-in-chief to a convoluted and outdated system that can be easily manipulated by politicians at the county and state level.

Like several states, Ohio recently has loosened its rules and allows voting by absentee ballot before Election Day for any reason, in an effort to boost turnout and make it easier to vote. That's a good first step, but more steps are needed.

In many European nations, elections are held on Sundays — when most people are off work — to encourage higher turnout. In some other democracies, Election Day is made a national holiday so people don't have an excuse to shrug off the responsibility.

Such tactics work: In a comparison of voter participation in lower house elections (that would be the U.S House of Representatives here) from 1960-95, the average U.S. turnout was just 54 percent. That compares to 73 percent in Spain, 76 percent in the United Kingdom, 83 percent in Brazil, 86 percent in Germany, 90 percent in Italy and 96 percent in Australia.

Clearly, those nations are doing something better than we are.