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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (41)	11/11/2000 1:34:56 AM
From: Carl R.	Respond to of 644

Zeev the butterfly ballot has been widely used over the years in various parts of the country. My wife used it when she lived in Missouri. I have used it in Texas. Doesn't it seem more than a little strange that after all of the thousands of times it has been used that suddenly it is unfair? If someone wanted to complain about it, they had ample time before the election. Now there is no remedy that can be granted. I have no problem with taking lessons learned from this election to improve future elections. I see no reason why we can't have touchscreen ballot boxes that print the ballot for you and prevent double voting. The problem is that you can't change what happened, and trying to hold a new election would be totally unreasonable and would never produce the results that would have occurred on election day. As for the 19,120 votes with multiple people voted for in the presidential election, this is consistent with prior elections. In 1996 about 16,000 people in Palm Beach county did the same thing. Considering the increase in voters in the county since then the 19,120 figure from this year is entirely consistent on a percentage basis. Thus there is no reason to believe that the ballots were related to the problem. I think that in Palm Beach instead of a "get out the vote" program they may need a "learn how to vote" program where they explain how to properly fill out a ballot. In the meantime the ballot was published in the newspaper. A ballot was mailed to each registered voter. The ballot was approved by both parties. If a voter had questions they could have ask them. If they made a mistake they could ask for a new ballot. But the voters themselves have some responsibility, and they must bear the consequences of their actions. They have a responsibility to learn how to vote, and to vote legitimately. I know that if I voted for two candidates my ballot would be thrown out, and it should be. Theirs should be, too. As for using the legal system to overturn an election making our constitution the better for it, quite the contrary it make our constitution a farce. Suppose someone like Milosovec holds an election in some other country and then refuses to leave power, using whatever reason to force new elections. We tell him to abide by the vote and he laughs, saying "why? This is the way you do it in your country". Each day that this goes on the country gets torn further apart. You are correct that Gore and Jackson are trying to create animosity towards Bush, but they are also creating animosity towards themselves. I can see rioting among Democrats in Bush becomes President, and rioting among the right wing if Gore does. I can imagine civil disobedience and tax avoidance reaching new highs. I see nothing but trouble if we don't follow our constitution and we start using the courts to overturn and reverse elections. I absolutely agree that the election will not be over until the absentee ballots are counted, and there is no reason for either party to concede until then. On the other hand, to calm the world both candidates should issue statements that once a final vote is in they will honor it. If the legal wrangling continues, obviously Florida will not be able to certify any election results. If not, we can't have a President elected by the Electoral college. That leaves us with a temporary president or a president picked by the House, neither an attractive choice. What is happening is very, very bad for the country, and is only likely to get worse. Carl

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (41)	11/11/2000 2:13:42 AM
From: Carl R.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 644

One final comment is that I strongly disagree with the choice of language when people claim that these 20,000 people were "disenfranchised". Their "franchise" is the right to vote. That entitles them to an opportunity to vote, which they got. All rights come with responsibilities, and in this case it is the responsibility to learn about the candidates and issues, and to properly fill out a ballot. If they do not fill it out correctly then whose fault is that? Did they not know that you could only vote for one person? Did they not examine the sample ballot in the newspaper? Did they not examine the sample ballot they got in the mail? Did they elect to not ask any questions at voting time? They had ample way opportunity to learn to how to vote, the opportunity to ask questions, and and even the opportunity to complain about the ballot prior to voting if they couldn't understand it. They weren't disenfranchised". They simply failed to take advantage of their "franchise", and it completely through their own fault. Furthermore they weren't the only ones nationwide that this happened to. In the rest of the country no doubt hundreds of thousands of votes were no doubt thrown out for the same reason, just as they should have been. Carl