* While there were no “massive problems” at the polls, the election showed the need for a “rational, consistent set of rules” for federal elections, the Denver Post asserts. Different state approaches to provisional voting will be remembered as particularly problematic, the editorial states. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune also urges Congress to do more, including pass a Really Help America Vote Act. The Boston Globe expressed similar concerns.
* The Journal-Sentinel has its own recommendations, including a ban on punch-card voting, mandatory election-day registration, paper trails for all voting, a block on any state law barring voting by ex-felons who have completed their sentences and parole and more poll workers and voting booths to reduce lines at the polls.
* The Wisconsin State Journal takes the opposite approach, urging state lawmakers “not to overdo it” in the wake of this month’s presidential vote, which went well for the most part.
* Democrats are still working their way through the “stages of grief,” writes columnist Jeff Defede in The Miami Herald. They seem stuck in denial, as evidenced by countless conspiracies circulating on the Internet. “There are teams of reporters and other interested parties, sifting through the allegations, trying to find evidence the election was stolen. So far, none has emerged. If it is out there, then I'm confident it will be revealed. (Registration required.)
* Those who dismiss the allegations of electronic voting problems, phantom votes, secret counting in Ohio and backwards counting in Florida as the musings of conspiracy theorists are “missing the real point,” states an editorial in The New York Times. “Until our election system is improved - with better mechanics and greater transparency - we cannot expect voters to have full confidence in the announced results,” the editors write. (Registration required.)
* “Electronic voting mostly succeeded,” states an editorial from the San Diego Union-Tribune reprinted in the Pasadena Star-News. E-voting “succeeded in its biggest test ever on Election Day as some 45 million voters cast their ballots on digital touch-screen machines, with early reports indicating only relatively minor problems.”
Other local opinion:
Alabama
Colorado
Florida
Michigan
North Carolina
South Carolina
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