Hi CB,
Thanks for the info on the Seminole situation. I was unaware of the involvement of Judge Lewis. An interesting twist, to be sure.
I don't have the interest to get into the minutiae of the pleadings in the Seminole matter. Lord knows there are plenty of lawyers being paid to do so. :)
My "hearsay" understanding is that the election officials in Seminole County denied the same rights to Democratic party workers as were allowed to the Republican party workers. I believe that is the basis of the case. Not the rather more picayune issue of a mere ministerial act that the Republican party worker engaged in.
I am ambivalent as to the merits of the case. I simply noticed that just as Boies is currently frustrated in front of a very conservative Judge Sauls, a man I would have to guess voted for Gov. Bush, in the same sense, Judge Clark most likely voted for Gore and the court has simply been politicized to the extent that decisions will more likely than not be determined on a partisan basis.
If someone did wrong, why not punish the county elections office staff and the Republican activists?
Frankly, I have no interest whatsoever in punishing anyone here. I'm merely interested in a fair counting of the ballots. Since this is being frustrated by the very able Barry Richards team, the Dems are simply doing what they can to use the judicial system for the purposes of securing a victory. Is it moral and above board to approach it this way? Not in the best of all possible worlds, but absolutely in the mud-wrestling contest we find the candidates presently involved in.
The interposition of Judge Lewis into this matter is why I decided, at age 18 that I wanted no part of the law game. Honesty and fair-dealing seem to have almost no place in the games that lawyers get so much pleasure out of. To me, it's always been a strange way to view the world, though I do understand the power of the law to confuse and obfuscate what a person with common sense would find a simple matter.
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At NO time did any party activist touch a ballot.
I got into it a couple of times with Dems who couldn't find a place in the Florida law that made this illegal. I trust you will make the effort.
Respectfully, I don't believe that is or should be the argument. The Dems case rests on the fact that Democratic Party workers were not afforded the same access to the Seminole County absentee ballot applications as was afforded to the Republicans. The argument about a party activist not touching a ballot is simply a red herring in my mind. I understand you see it differently. So be it. Reasonable people can disagree on where to put the accent, and very clearly will. <g>
Best, Ray |
