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To: Robert O who wrote (39343)11/9/2000 12:47:21 PM
From: scott_jiminez  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 70976
 
*OT* End of story - NOT (says a Federal Judge)

News item - Federal judge calls hearing in Florida vote controversy (http://www.cnn.com/).

Clearly, there are extremely reasonable, and probably better qualified, people who disagree with you Robert.

I'm afraid in this singular circumstance your claims are likely to be proven wrong. We're dealing with highly irregular voting patterns and a unique voting population. It's one thing to claim 'ALL parties' approved the ballot; it's altogether different to realize in hindsight how incredibly inappropriate it may have been for an elderly population.

An 'End of Story' assertion leaves no room for human misjudgment...and misjudgement is probably a fairly accurate way to characterize this ballot situation.



To: Robert O who wrote (39343)11/9/2000 1:08:12 PM
From: Sam Citron  Respond to of 70976
 
Robert,

Your brief is also well presented. Can you imagine any hypothetical where a revote would be justified absent outright fraud?

If you examine the demographics of Palm Beach County, you will find quite a large proportion of elderly voters. Elderly people frequently have significant enough vision-related problems that something only slightly unusual for the rest of us is absolutely impossible for the elderly to decipher. Those who approved the butterfly punchcard ballot in Palm Beach obviously have no regard for the common difficulties of a substantial portion of the population in their jurisdiction.

I agree that the punchcard system has to go. If the voter has made more choices than permissible, the system must so inform the voter so that he can reconsider.

The visual display of information is also unbelievably important. In the future, I would hope that ballots will be approved by experts in graphics as well as party operatives.