Debunking Gore myths
Al Gore is seeking to perpetuate a
number of myths in furtherance of his
obsessive quest to fulfill his
childhood dream. He is speaking with
forked tongue because the truth does
not benefit his presidential ambitions.
These myths are the foundational
currency of Gore's post-election
propaganda campaign, and must be
continually debunked, even if some of
them have been around for weeks.
Myth One: That Gore is seeking to have
every vote counted in Florida.
Gore, in his interview with NBC's
Claire Shipman, said that the way to
remove the potential cloud over the
election is to count every vote. "That
is so simple and clear to me that I
just feel so strongly about it. If
people vote, their votes have to be
counted." Really?
Shipman, in a rare moment in the
45-minute softball interview,
challenged Gore's assertion. "Don't you
think that if you get votes counted in
part of Florida, but not other parts of
Florida where there are also ballots
that were undercounted and sitting
there, that will also be viewed as ..."
Gore, rather than answer her question,
interrupted, sidestepped and
dissembled. He responded that "both
campaigns had an equal opportunity to
go out and register voters. Both had an
equal opportunity to get people to turn
out to the polls." And, both sides had
an equal opportunity to contest the
election results.
So what? What does that have to do with
the question? Gore's answer,
translated, is: Last one to the
courthouse is a rotten egg. In Gore's
own words this is not about counting
all votes but winning the election
through strategically placed judicial
strikes.
Plus, Gore definitely didn't want all
the military votes recounted.
Myth Two: That every candidate, upon
request, is automatically entitled to a
manual recount under Florida law.
"Candidates," said Gore, "are given the
right under the law to say, 'Look. This
election is close enough that the
ballots that haven't been counted could
make the difference, so you have to
count 'em.'"
This is false. It's true that each
candidate has a right to request a
manual recount, but the county
canvassing boards are not required to
honor the request. Even some
Republicans have bought into this
misstatement of the Florida law. The
law provides that either candidate may
request a manual recount in any county.
When such a request is made the
county's canvassing board may then
conduct a manual recount of 1 percent
of the county's total votes in at least
three precincts. If such 1 percent
sampling indicates "an error in the
vote tabulation which could affect the
outcome of the election," the board
may, but is not required to, conduct a
full manual recount. Florida
legislators involved with drafting and
enacting this statute say that "an
error in vote tabulation" means a
machine error.
So, in the absence of fraud, before the
canvassing board may order a full
manual recount, its 1 percent sampling
must show that there were sufficient
machine errors that could affect the
outcome of the election. No one -- even
on the Gore team -- contends that there
were any machine errors. So, under the
statute, none of the four counties had
the statutory authority to conduct full
manual recounts. Even if you ignore the
statutory requirement for a machine
error, the county canvassing boards
still wouldn't have been required to
conduct a full manual recount; their
decision as to whether or not to do so
is purely optional and within their
discretion. Public officials cannot be
forced (through a writ of mandamus) to
perform an act over which they have
discretion. Miami-Dade acted wholly
within its discretion in declining to
conduct a full manual recount.
Therefore, Gore's lawsuit to force
Miami-Dade to complete its manual
recount is without merit.
Myth Three: Not every vote was counted.
Gore is trying to create the impression
that the machines ignored properly cast
ballots and thereby disenfranchised
voters. To the contrary, many voters
consciously chose not to cast a vote
for president, despite voting for other
offices. And, some voters didn't cast
their votes correctly despite explicit
instructions on the ballot to punch all
the way through and to leave no hanging
chads. Many voters may have erred, but
not the machines. Gore says that he's
"in love with democracy." Another myth?
I'll let you decide. |
