Srexley--Go back and recount the history to what actually happened:
1) Election on Tuesday.
2) 72 hours subsequent to Tuesday recount request. That puts us in Friday.
3) The counties had voting populations of 400,000 to 650,000. Furthermore, these counties used antiquated voting machines which, according to the machine's inventor, can show an error rate of three to five percent. These machines are used not for accuaracy, but for time and speed and budget. Winner of the national popular vote, a Gore request for a hand recount in these counties was an honorable act and one Gore had to initiate on behalf of all of those who voted for him.
Florida law allows the Gore recount. However, the law has to survive a reasonable test as to whether or not it can be complied with. Under the conditions set forth by the Republican-dominated state election board and ambassador-elect Harris, compliance was impossible!
3) On Friday, ambassador-elect Harris was stipulating all results had to be in by Tuesday. These large counties had no reasonable amount of time by which to conduct a hand recount, especially since no guidance was forthcoming from Harris' office. The Florida election board was dominated by Republicans. Sure there was a token Democrat, who took brother Jeb Bush's place, but he (Crawford) supported Bush in this election.
4) Bush realized Gore had more votes. The only way Bush could win would be to short-circuit the vote counts of the four counties and complain about excessive recounting. In fact, Gore requested only one recount in four counties and only to establish the votes which the machines NEVER counted in the first place. Again, the inventor of the machine will tell you that the machines will not count ALL votes.
5) Whenever there's been a recount in any state, the candidates set back and let the process take effect. The Bush Campaign didn't do this and attempted, so far successfully, to bag the election.
And you know what? You know this! |
