Heather Gerken has written this commentary for Legal Times. It begins: “Our election system is in scandalous shape — lost ballots, inadequate registration lists, malfunctioning machinery, and poorly trained officials. The kind of intense political battles we have seen recently have put more pressure on this creaky system than it can handle. In 2000, we almost couldn’t choose a president. In 2004, we were several thousand votes away from a similar disaster. Had just one of November’s close Senate races occurred in a state with the most serious problems, we still might not know who controls that chamber.” Heather will be presenting a version of this paper at the AALS legislation panel Thursday morning.