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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Selectric II who wrote (122924)	1/21/2001 2:16:19 AM
From: mst2000	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Interesting, but Florida State law did not require or even contemplate statewide recount - it is county by county under Florida statute. Gore had no legal obligation to do it statewide, nor was there a need to do it statewide since counties without punch ballots do not have the same problems. The US Code says that the safe harbor goes to those who comply with state election law as it existed before the election. That was exactly what Gore did. It was Bush, sadly, who took the position that the existing law was somehow unconstitional, because he was scared of what the result would be. And for good reason.

To: Selectric II who wrote (122924)	1/21/2001 7:57:43 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

When you say "the selective recount caused all the legal problems", you're implying that had Gore asked for a statewide recount, the courts and Republicans would have agreed. No way. They would have just kept up the chorus spinning the line that recounts are unAmerican, subjective, impossible, chaotic, a waste of time (this would have been emphasized in the event of a statewide recount). Then they would have skipped straight to the USSC with their equal protection clause arguments, because it still would have been a decentralized process unless the FSC wrote a new standard from the bench. (Had the FSC done that, of course, they would have asked the USSC to overturn it.) Remember, Bush was ahead, barely, and both sides knew the recounts were likely to benefit Gore. So the Republican goal was simple: no recounts, period. Clearly, in hindsight, it would have been better strategy for Gore to fight for a statewide recount. But the limited recount didn't create the legal problems; it merely altered their trajectory slightly.