Kosovo Ponders U.S. Democracy in Action

P R I S T I N A, Kosovo, Nov. 20 -- There’s a joke doing the rounds in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo among American expatriates, and others. The punchline is that perhaps the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) should have organized and run the U.S. presidential election.

Less funny is that many people believe it.

On October 28, just over a week before the U.S. election, Kosovo held its first free democratic election in over a decade. The OSCE organized and ran the election.

This was not a presidential or parliamentary election. It was a municipal election — an election to choose local leaders who will deal with the important issues of garbage removal, road reconstruction, electricity and water.

Despite the seeming insignificance of these issues to most U.S., over 75 percent of all Kosovars who were registered to vote, voted.

Not only did they vote, but they waited in line for more than four hours in some cases to exercise their right to vote. And now, Kosovars, like many others from all over the world, are simply perplexed by the recent U.S. presidential election.

First and foremost, Kosovars and other non-U.S. citizens alike cannot understand how it is possible for a president to be elected without receiving a majority of the popular vote. I cannot tell you how many people have asked me to explain the Electoral College system of voting.

I was embarrassed to find that I could not explain it or its history in detail without doing some research. Kosovars and other internationals alike believe the Electoral College is simply undemocratic and should be abolished.

Baffling Variety of Ballots

Second, all Kosovars voted on the same ballot form and in the same manner — ;in a cardboard booth with a paper ballot and a pen. How is it, many ask, that people all over the U.S. vote on different ballots and some electronically, some by punching a hole in a paper ballot and some by pen and paper ballot?

In Kosovo there was one ballot and every Kosovar who voted used a pen to mark their vote, folded it up and put it in a box. There was only one set of rules about what constituted a valid or invalid ballot and those rules were applied uniformly. Kosovars cannot understand why the U.S. permits such disparity in ballots and voting procedures.