[Mb-civic] Letter

[Ian]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ian 
To: letters at nytimes.com 
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 9:31 PM
Subject: Letter


Your even-dozen list of "New Standards for Elections" (Editorial, Nov. 7) was excellent and on-target.  However, I would add three more.

13.  Eliminate exit polls.  These polls are not only unscientific, but simply feed the media's rabidness for announcing winners in various states even before a single vote is counted.  And, in that regard,

14.  Eliminate pre-poll-closing news.  In conjunction with eliminating exit polls, the media should be legally prevented from providing any speculation or pre-poll-closing news regarding election results.  Because this type of news only serves to skew voting in precincts in which the polls remain open.  Only when the last precinct in the last state to vote has been closed should the news media have the right to begin speculating or making claims.

15.  Mandate Representational Apportionment of the Electoral College.  We have now been through two successive elections in which the Electoral College has proven to be an impediment, if not a danger, to democracy - one in which the candidate who won the popular vote lost to the candidate who secured more Electoral College points, and one in which it could easily have happened again (by an even greater margin) if a single state's Electoral College had fallen the other way.

We do not need to eliminate the Electoral College, nor would the Congress approve any such legislation.  However, if the Electoral College were apportioned based on representation - rather than on a "winner take all" basis - it would come much closer to an accurate portrayal of the popular vote.

Rev. Ian Alterman
New York City
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