It's interesting to hear the arguments for and against any situation. Our arguments are more forceful if the result didn't turn out the way we wanted.
In the case of the Bush camp, the result was fine with them, so why ask for a recount? For Gore, he could only improve his chances with a recount, especially in areas where he could "find" more Democratic votes.
Many systems are flawed. As you said, it doesn't matter when the margin of victory is large. In this case, it mattered. So for me, the action to take is to improve the system so that next time the flaws will be small enough not to influence the outcome.
However, the opportunity to vote, with the system in place, occurred on Nov 7 of this year. Run the system. Abide by the outcome. I feel for those that were short changed (although it is hard to feel for those who couldn't take the time to follow a simple arrow), and only wish them or others had made these efforts last time it happened, before it really made a difference.
Hopefully, this shambles will inspire the right people to improve the system.
What's more interesting is that in the end, each vote counts. We had a race in my district where the winner received 10 more votes than the loser (out of 3400). Why, my family made the difference in that race! Most to be pitied are those who can't take the time to vote. |
