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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (8118)	11/30/2000 7:39:20 PM
From: Math Junkie	Respond to of 10042

Good, insightful post. One correction: under Florida law, the parties are allowed to ask for recounts right up to the time the returns are certified, or 72 hours after the election, whichever is later. This was one factor which played a part in the Fla. Supreme Court's concluding that adhering to a hard deadline would have rendered the right to a recount "illusory".

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (8118)	11/30/2000 8:34:16 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10042

Only Broward and Volusia have been recounted Actually, I believe EVERY Florida county as had at least one, if not two, electronic recounts. And the Republicans have not strongly countered electronic recounts, but the manual recounts, where human manipulation and constantly altered standards for recognizing votes are the issue. Thus, the debate over dimpled ballots and hanging chads. And Dade county DID recount the democratic precincts FIRST, yielding only 157 votes. They decided NOT to continue the recount because they would not have finished in the time required by the Fl. Supreme Court, and they were prevented by their own regulations from merely manually recounting the 10,000+ "undervotes". If they recounted anything they had to recount everything. Thus, recognizing that the democratic precincts yielded a minimum of votes, and that counting further precincts will take them into heavily cuban/republican areas of the county, which voted 54% republican, they excercised their right as a canvassing board and ended the recount. Now Gore is suing them to make them begin the recounts again, which takes us to those ballots traveling to the Tallahassee courtrooms and Gore's attempt to make the recounting begin NOW, despite the fact that the judge has yet to rule whether a recount is permissible. Now... I call that HUBRIS on the part of Gore and his legal eagles!! Again, these are anonymous ballots, ballots that could have been cast by non-citizens who were registered automatically under the "motor voter" law. No one knows who cast them, but only where they were cast. No one knows if they deliberately chose not to cast a vote for president, or merely screwed up and were too confused, lazy, or just plain too stupid to ask for a new ballot. And Palm Beach's manual recount wasn't finished because they decided voluntarily to take thanksgiving off. Well, nothing says that they have to work on Thanksgiving, but since the supreme court had already re-written Florida election law and granted an extension on certifying the election until the 26th, for them to claim they weren't counted is the county's fault, not George Bush. Hell, they could have elected to only work 8 hours a day, PLUS take Thanksgiving Day off..... That was their right and their decision. And Gore has NO RIGHT to force them to recount votes on HIS TIMELINE. Just as Bush as NO RIGHT to tell them not to recount the votes manually. But the Florida Election Law weighs a balance between accuracy in counting all votes, and arriving at finality in order to participate in the electoral college. And that is why they have a deadline on certifying an election so that the loser has the time necessary to contest it. It ain't perfect and certain it can be improved. But make no mistake about it... Al Gore could care less if Florida has electors represented in the College, since as it stands currently, without Florida he has more electoral votes. So naturally he's doing everything possible to create sufficient chaos so that Florida is prevented from sending its electors there. Of course, he would never admit that and continues to cynically hide behind the "every vote is a human voice" rhetoric. That's why the battle know longer is in the courtrooms but in the Florida State Legislature. They have the constitutional ability to circumvent the entire election system and assign the state's electoral representatives to the college. This is yet again, one more check and balance upon the system being hijacked in the courts. And it is one area in which the Florida Supreme Court HAS NO JURISDICTION, nor for their interpretation. That is why the Republican dominated Florida State Legislature is preparing to call a special session next week and override the courts. The state legislature creates the state's election law. The courts can interpret it, but the legislature writes it. Regards, Ron