First off, apologies to the Elder for scooping him on Berg's hoisting of Keillor. Unfortunately, I just so happen to have my finger on the information and entertainment pulse of the Twin Cities and when I get the straight dope first, I can't restrain myself! However, I will make an exception by not posting the results of the Elder's recent urinalysis until his doctor has a chance to discuss it with him first.
In other news, there's another interesting item from this week's City Pages. Paul Demko reports on his experiences as a poll worker. Although I didn't encounter the same difficulties he did, it all seems plausible. Despite the non-letter-perfect attention to detail experienced at his precinct, and accounting for a reasonable level of human error, any rational observer would have to conclude that the procedures and the counts were valid.
I wouldn't necessarily say the same for what apparently occurred in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Adam Christian relays his experience in the current issue of The American Prospect. From the appallingly inadequate training and low pay for poll workers (and their correspondingly high absentee rate), the lack of a legal requirement for (and a bureaucratic commitment to) an equally partisan composition of judges at each location, to the continued use of punch cards (despite overwhelming evidence of their unreliability), and the lack of separation of judging tasks (thus allowing one person to both register voters and distribute ballots), their system is slack and much more prone to abuse than ours. The machinery of running elections in Minnesota is far from perfect, but I think it may be among the best out there.
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