Jai, no one would disagree with the need for a statewide manual recount, especially considering the anecdotal evidence of failure of the machines to render an accurate count. But no one, as far as I know, has been denied the right to a manual count. If they were denied that right, they could easily prevail in court in an election this close. In short, there is nothing in the way of a manual recount anywhere in Florida, except for the stubborn Secretary of State, who just happens to have a conflict of interest by virtue of her being co-chair of the Bush campaign.
I think that alleged conflict of interest may have influenced the Florida Supreme Court to issue an order on its own motion not to certify the election results until the Supreme Court has had an opportunity to review the arguments now being prepared by each side. If she had certified the election tomorrow, given the earlier ruling of Judge Lewis, whatever challenge was filed later on would probably be thrown out on the grounds that the issue had already been decided by her certification.
Let's get straight on two issues:
1. All the votes should be counted, as far as is HUMANLY possible.
2. Because of the nature of the voting machines and the card readers, some votes have been thrown out because the machines could not read the cards, or were programmed to throw out all questionable results. Thus, the machines cannot be claimed to be more accurate than a manual count, especially when it is now documented that the machines were treating certain ballots as invalid just because of chads remaining attached to the ballot form.
It is becoming more and more obvious that if all the ballots were counted, Gore would be the winner in Florida, just as he is already the winner of the majority vote in the U.S.
Art Bechhoefer |
