<<I guess my question is, the burden of proving what? That the ballots were not counted? Or that the ballots, if counted, would change or probably change the outcome? For me, it is enough that they were not counted. Every vote deserves to be counted, and demands to be counted....even the ones for Gore.>>
Philosophically, I agree with you.
Realistically, it's another story.
The 10K ballots are among those in Miami Dade.
They were machine counted, but the machine
count did not yield a vote for president,
though they were counted as to other races.
(This should tell you something)
Miami Dade officials had the discretion
whether or not to proceed with the re-count,
which included, but was not limited to, these
10K ballots. They elected not to, and they made
this decision after having re-counted all the
heavily Democratic precincts and before they
commenced on the precincts that leaned toward
Republicans.
Florida law, for better or worse, vests discretion
over manual recounts in local officials.
As I understand it, there is always of margin of
error in voting. It just so happens that in this
case the margin is significant since the election
was so close.
The Democrats have done a masterful job of framing
the controversy as a concern over assuring that
every vote is counted. This is the concern you have been expressing. But focusing on the 10K votes is
not likely to achieve a fair result and could very well run afoul of the Constitution.
Simply, the entire state would probably have to be recounted
in order to really be fair, and that just won't happen at this point.
Any court ordered recount must be based on a showing that
the outcome of the election was affected by irregularities
complained of. And you can't focus on just the 10K votes
because that is likely unconstitutional.
So there you have it. |
