By Michelle Jamrisko Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
With less than 20 days before the polls open to determine the next resident of the White House, several students have voiced concerns about disorganization of the voting process.
Second-year College student McKenzie Haynes said she thinks several problems in the voting process today are residual issues from the faulty 2000 election process.
"After 2000, anything is really possible," Haynes said. "The American system of voting really just needs an overhaul."
Haynes said she believes the disenfranchisement of blacks in Florida for the 2000 election is an unresolved matter.
Besides disenfranchisement, absentee ballot mailing procedures have been the target of recent criticism. When she didn't receive her absentee ballot for several weeks, Haynes called the voter registration office to verify its delivery.
Haynes is not alone. Even with young voter awareness and education programs like MTV's "Rock the Vote" and Virginia 21, students said they've found that the registration process is not painless.
"I know a bunch of people had trouble finding how to get [an absentee ballot] online," second-year Engineering student Katharina Ley said.
College Graduate student Mark Meier said he is not as concerned with alleged problems with absentee ballots as he is with more sizeable issues -- electronic voting machines, lack of voting verification, accessibility of the polls, controversial voting by convicted felons and the fact that Nov. 2 is not a national holiday.
And, Meier believes that "a level above [those problems] is the Electoral College."
Even with all the complications of the voting process, students agreed that casting the ballot is worth the hassle.
"We have the lowest voter turnout of pretty much any long-established democratic nation in the world," Ley said. "We're voting for a representative of our population.[Not voting] kind of defeats the purpose."
Haynes said she won't let any perceived inefficiency get in the way of her vote.
"No matter what cost it takes, you have to do it," she said. "It's my right -- something I need to show I can do, and will do."
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