If either presidential candidate is willing to put patriotism and
statemanship ahead mere politics, then they will act as this article
recommends:
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/09/courageous_act/index.html
In short, once the recounts are finished, the winner should call for a
run-off election for the entire state of Florida. He should acknowledge
that our balloting system, in this case, was too imprecise an instrument
to determine the will of Florida's electorate, and therefore call for a
run off, putting the election back into the hands of the people, and not
into the hands of lawyers or mere accident.
Failing that, I agree that the Gore campaign shouldn't challenge the final
results in court (or the Bush campaign, should a miracle reversal of
fortunes occur). If, as it seems, the voting districts in question have
a history of throwing out 10-20 thousand ballots in elections with large
turnout because of miscast ballots, then that's an issue between the
voters of that county and their elected elections officials, who also
deserve to be thrown out for incompetence or for failing to invest in
better balloting technology--one report I've heard said that their voting
machines are based on designs nearly 40 years old. Responsibility for the
physical handling of election procedures gets delegated to the local level
in most cases, and it looks like that's where any legal dispute belongs.
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
