Florida law allows a candidate to request a hand recount in any specific county within 72 hours after the election. Gore has asked for one recount only, in four counties only. Those counties had problem voting machines with known error rates greater than the percentage of difference between the two candidates. The combination of Bush's secretary of state in-the-bag and all of the abuse heaped on genuine people trying to do their county vote-counting jobs clearly inhibited, distracted and in some cases eliminated Gore's recount.
No matter what the cost, Bush's tactic was not to let those counties count because he knew if they were accounted and the results released to the public, the results would show Gore had more votes than Bush.
Fortunately, however, the courts have power and precedent to make the situation fair once again.
Neocon, isn't there a provision that if anyone assists anyone with making out an absentee ballot, that that individual must sign their signature noting they assisted the voter? So how then did that Republican functionary, with the laptop, get to touch over 4,000 Seminole County ballots without the voter's awareness? Will those Bush votes be eliminated by a court? Possible
Additionally, given Buchanon is on record as saying he got some of Gore's votes due to the illegal butterfly ballot, and given so many double-punched candidates caused Gore so many spoiled ballots, if the butterfly ballot is formally, by a court, declared illegal--as it was--then precedent exists in Florida law whereby the court can assign a statistical likelihood of votes Gore would have and should have received.
But why go through all this? Why not just count all the votes from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County? Much simpler, don't you think?
Bush, if he wins just 'cause Florida's secretary of state was his campaign co-chair, will be illegitamate. And I think you know it. |
