Hand-to-Hand Combat - The Gore strategy is clear
Politics/Elections Front Page Opinion (Published) Keywords: ELECTION STEALING
Source: National Review
Published: 11/11/00 Author: Rich Lowry
Posted on 11/11/2000 11:40:29 PST by vrwc54
The decision by the Bush campaign to seek a federal injunction against hand recounts in four Democratic counties surely muddies the GOP's message. After warning that this election shouldn't wind up the court, the Bushies are now doing their part to send it there. As Robert George points out on NRO today, this course has its perils. But the Bush campaign has no choice.
The Gore strategy clearly is to scrounge for enough votes to tip the Florida margin to Gore — then to throw the Bush campaign's rhetoric right back at it and declare the election decided once and for all. This is, in effect, an effort to steal the election, to use a different method of vote counting only for Democratic areas, and then, when enough Democratic votes turn up, to stop the special counting.
For a taste of what is going on here, consider this: in heavily Democratic Broward County — which voted 3,554 for Gore, 133 for Bush — a manual recount has been scheduled in three precincts. Is a hand recount there likely to turn up any "hanging chads" for Bush? No, the whole point is to find more Gore votes.
Given this set of circumstances, the Bush campaign couldn't just sit and watch its lead evaporate. The campaign could have requested hand recounts in heavily Republican areas, but that would, obviously, seem opportunistic. Or, to avoid that appearance, it could request a hand recount throughout the state — but that is just the sort of long, drawn-out, logistical nightmare that is in the nation's interest to avoid.
Besides, as Baker said this morning, hand recounts are subjective. The advantage of machines is that, they may make mistakes, but they make mistakes in a nonpartisan way, discounting ballots in a random manner that probably evens out in the end. So, the upshot is that going for an injunction might be the best of several bad options — at least, that is, if the Bushies are confident that they can actually get it. |
