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Fairness and the Florida Election Results
Posted
11-28-2000
Is the Presidential election over, and was the Florida vote cast and
counted fairly? Those are the questions of the day. I'm sure the answers to
those questions depend on whether you are a Democrat or Republican. The
questions will probably never be answered to the satisfaction of most
Democrats, and most Republicans believe that they know the answer, and it is
that their man won.
One thing is clear; the
Florida election process is messed up and messed up badly. In Palm Beach
County, the ballot that was used clearly violated state election laws.
Whether each party approved it or not is irrelevant. Political parties don't
determine election laws. The fact is that the ballot was used, and thousands
of double votes likely caused the loss of the election for Al Gore. But it
just doesn't seem possible to rectify the situation.
In Seminole County, the
Republican election chief invited Republican workers in to correct thousands
of absentee ballots cast by Republican voters that were filled out
incorrectly. The result was 10,000 absentee votes for Bush and about 5,200
for Gore. After an admission by the election chief of this clearly illegal
procedure, a lawsuit has been filed to have those votes invalidated. Will
those votes be thrown out? Not likely!
In Dade County, the recount
stopped, started, and then stopped again after the canvassing board claimed
that it couldn't finish the recount in the time allotted. When they stopped
the recount, Al Gore had gained 257 votes. However, the county is going to
use their November 14th totals that do not include those votes. I’m sure the
issue will be contested in court, but it is unlikely to be overturned.
In Broward County, the
question of what standard was used to evaluate undercounted votes will
probably never be resolved. It also seems that it was in Broward County
where the mysterious 50,000 surge in Bush votes took place shortly AFTER the
networks had called the state for Gore, and George W. Bush came on
television to say the networks were wrong. I doubt that phenomenon will ever
be explained.
Perhaps the county with the
most controversy will always be Palm Beach. Not only were there the double
votes that excluded thousands of votes likely to have been Gore's, but the
extremely high Buchanan vote occurred there too. Even Buchanan said he knew
he didn’t really receive those votes. But it is unlikely that the outcome
will be changed.
Why am I rehashing these
election controversies again? Because I'm tired of George W. and his minions
acting like they somehow won the election fair and square. Could you imagine
if the tables were turned, and Gore was ahead by a few votes? They'd have
Ken Starr investigating. Republicans are accusing the Democrats of trying to
steal the election when the exact opposite has occurred.
Remember all the polls before
the election and exit polls said that Gore was ahead in Florida. The Voter
News Service that does the legwork for the networks called 49 out of 50
states correctly, and only in W's brother's state were they wrong. Also,
since exit polling has been used in presidential elections, can you ever
remember a state being called one way and then changed? I can’t. This
tainted election of George W. Bush, where he lost the popular vote, will be
remembered in history the same as John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes,
and Benjamin Harrison as presidents who were not popularly elected and ended
up being one-term presidents.
Republican activists can try
to spin the results whatever way they want, but their level of mean spirited
dialogue has shown them in an extremely unfavorable light. Even more
offensive is their elected mouthpieces like Bob Dole and George Pataki
acting indignant about Gore not conceding. In the weeks leading up to the
election, when it appeared Bush could possibly win the popular vote but not
the electoral vote, Republicans were preparing a massive campaign to have
electors change their vote to carry out the "will of the people". Now with
the tables turned, I guess we aren't really going to see the will of the
people carried out; instead George W. will win a tainted electoral victory.
It will forever be shrouded in suspicion because so many voters in the state
where his brother is governor were disenfranchised, and their will was not
heard. |
