Doctor, Heal Thyself

Once the United States and Egypt solve their nasty little spitting spat over purported American interference in Egyptian political affairs, and the situation has returned to standoff status or what could be termed normalcy, the U.S. should seriously think of recalling the actors within the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute and put them to work at home.

Presumably, they'd be welcomed back where they belong, and they might even be able to accomplish a whole lot of good. They could begin by decrying the obsolete and backward state of American voter registration, and insist that the country get serious about rectifying a truly serious democratic deficit to ensure that all legal voters are appropriately registered.

And while they're at it, they could also castigate whoever is responsible for not taking a scouring brush to the entire voter registration system, cleansing it, for example of the huge number of registered voters who no longer have any living interest in casting their vote for any candidate for the foreseeable future, for they've been a long time dead.

It would appear that over 1.8 million dead Americans are listed as active U.S. voters. Roughly 2.75 million others have active registration in more than one state. This, according to the Pew Center on the States, in their latest report released just a few days earlier.

The outdated and obviously inefficient registration system is so pervasively unreliable that one in eight registrations is invalid.

If not totally invalid, then markedly inaccurate, according to research. Is there much difference? The entire U.S. electoral system/s "are plagued with errors and inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections", claimed the report.

Furthermore, they point out, largely paper-based voter registration "has not kept pace with advancing technology and a mobile society". How about computerizing such a vital indice of foundational democratic values? Like some other, less well-endowed countries have.

Voter ID laws were passed in eight states last year. Which means there's a whole lot more that should be following suit. And many are, but isn't it time that upgrades and increased security on required data for voter registration be expressed across the board?

Isn't there a presidential election looming on the horizon, due for November? Should the U.S. be asking friendly countries to send over vote-and-ballot-box monitors?