There are procedural solutions to avoid recount nightmares.
One, instant runoff voting, is on track to be employed in Minneapolis city elections this year. Under this system, voters rank their preferences among several candidates, and if their first choice falls below a threshold of votes, their second choice would be counted. This allows all voters to express a preference that counts in the final vote; no votes are wasted. Imagine if the more than 437,000 votes garnered by Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley had their second choices allocated between Coleman and Franken. Those votes would count, and the outcome would probably be clearer, whereas in recounts under the traditional system, they are ignored.
Another option is to have a runoff election if the margin between the top two candidates is small -- say, under 5,000 votes -- or if either candidate fails to get 50 percent of the vote. Georgia, with its 50 percent threshold law, held a runoff election in early December, producing a decisive winner from between the top two candidates.
Steve Schier is a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
