Were People Disenfranchised in the 2004 Election?

In the weeks following the November 2 election, John Kerry impressed me with the class and magnanimity with which he accepted his defeat. He resisted calls by Democratic supporters to challenge the results.

This approach echoed the surprisingly good-willed response of Richard Nixon following the 1960 elections when there were substantial, credible claims of vote fraud in Illinois and Texas. I believe that in reacting this way, Nixon, in spite of his loss of the California governorship in 1962, helped pave the way to his win of the presidency in 1968.

I believe that given his performance in the 2004 race, Kerry must be considered the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

But, questioning the fairness of the 2004 race could create the same impression that Al Gore made of himself in the wake of the 200o election, of being a sore loser.

The senator has alleged, according to this article, that:

voting machines were distributed in uneven ways and in some Democratic districts, it took people up to 11 hours to vote.

Kerry claims Republicans were able to get through in 10 minutes.

I live in an overwhelmingly Republican area where George Bush got about 70% of the vote. I waited about an hour-and-forty-five minutes to vote and that was similar to the experience of many in this county, where Bush received similar percentages of the vote.

Voting procedures here in Ohio and elsewhere throughout the country clearly could use some repair or change, to be sure. Fair minded people of all political persuasions can agree to that, I think. But I don't think the evidence bears the sorts of allegations that Senator Kerry made the other day.