What has happened is absolutely fabulous. First, the events are showing that the Constitutional process of electing a President is sound and robust and accounts for every little bump in the road to swearing in a President
I absolutely agree. My children (4, 7 and 9 years old) are fascinated by this entire process. I'm positive they wouldn't have given the election a second thought had it proceeded in a "normal" course.
My daughter was watching a report about the "butterfly ballot" with me and asked "Daddy, did you punch the right hole on your ballot?"
I was delighted to know she was already thinking about how the voting process works.
I think it was you who pointed out in an earlier post that George Bush signed legislation permitting manual recounts in Texas. I agree with you that he can't have it both ways. In fact, regardless of whether he supported or opposed manual recounts in Texas, Florida law allows it, so he must abide by Florida law.
As I've said before, I personally have no problem with a manual recount in Florida. I just think it should be done Statewide, or not at all. As I understand it, many counties in Florida had thousands of invalid ballots.
If the intent is to validate the Will of the People, and the most accurate method of doing this is to manually recount the ballots, then recount the entire State. After all, it is the entire State popular vote that determines the electoral vote, not the votes of two or three counties.
If the intent is to selectively count the ballots until one or the other candidate is pleased with the results, then I'm personally opposed to selectively recounting the ballots.
Most importantly, I don't think either side cares about the Will of the People, so much as about winning. This is happening because the election is so close. It is the "hundred year flood" that Democracy needs to test its banks. |
