> -----Original Message-----
> From: John D. Giorgis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 12:29 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Buckley on the Florida Recount
>
>
> This is far better than I have ever stated it:
>
> ************************************************
> Here is the beginning of wisdom on the electoral jam.
>
> 1) In competitions, somebody wins. That means that somebody loses.
Were there not two american swimmers that tied in competition in the
Olympics? They were measured to the 1/1000 of a second and tied. If they
were measured at 1/10000th of a second I am sure there would have not been a
tie. However, they were not, and a tie was called.
Game theory does not agree with this statement that there is always a winner
and loser.
>
> 2) Margins of victory can be interesting, suggestive; worth
> probing for a number of reasons. But they have nothing to do
> with the question of winning and losing.
See Above...
>
> 3) In athletic contests it is nowadays not unusual for a
> skier or a runner to win by 1/100th of a second. Using round
> numbers, 100 million Americans voted, one half going to each
> of the two major candidates. Winning or losing by 300 votes
> in a political contest in which six million voted is to win
> or lose by 1/10,000th of a point. That kind of thing happens
> all the time in sports.
Yes, but this will affect nearly every single person on the planet. You just
can't treat this as a sporting event.
(by the way, does anyone see the similarities between the occurance of a
split vote of 50/50 and what percentage one would get by flipping a coin?
Yes, THAT'S RIGHT, I _am_ accusing the American public of being a bunch of
Coin-flippers!The odds are so against these events occuring, that it must be
some mechanics at work that made the election go randomly one way or
another- equally. hummmm!)
>
> 4) We are not engaged in a national plebiscite on the
> Electoral College system. Both of the candidates have sworn
> to uphold the Constitution, and it decrees how new presidents
> are to be selected. Those who wish to amend the Constitution
> are entirely free to do so. See Article V. And set aside a
> couple of years to get it done.
The constitution states that everyone has the right to vote. Frankly I would
be pretty mad if my ballot was invalidated from something that was not my
fault. I have to punch my card by hand (Mail-in Ballot in Oregon). The Law
(in Oregon) said that the only way I could vote was by mail. I was not sent
a ballot, even though I am a registered voter. I waited in line for two
hours to get my ballot. I turned it in with half hour to spare. What if the
guy that I handed my ballot to from my car, dropped mine in the mud or
somthing like that,which invalidated my vote. I have the right to vote. Am I
entitled to Vote? I believe I am. If an event occured that invalidated my
vote, through no fault of mine, I would DEMAND, as my Constitutional RIGHT
to have my VOTE Counted, Procedure be Damned!
>
> 5) The single question that properly occupies us is what was
> the recorded vote in Florida. This is a different question
> from: What would the vote have been in Florida if a) Nader
> wasn't running, b) Buchanan wasn't running, c) voters gave
> more time to deliberating over the ballot they used, or d)
> voters had given more time to deliberating the leverage of a
> vote on that day, in that state.
A vote is a vote. People still have the right to it. It has no less value
one day to the next, unless you want to get technical, which is what is
happening. The constitution certainly did not declare any sort of
contengency like this.
>
> 6) Accordingly: Procedure is king. Nothing else counts, or
> should count. Procedure asks a relatively simple question:
> How did the voters mark their ballots on November 7th?
Procedure is only a legal process. I does not make something right or wrong.
You cannot discount the most important part of this government, which is _my
opinion_.
I don't give a crap which way it goes, because I voted for Harry Brown. Bush
or Gore sucks(my opinion). But if for some reason I accidently had chosen
Nader, I would most certainly want a new ballot, and I would care about any
sort of rule that says "Too Bad.. Too Late.. we are out of time". If this
happened, I just might go and "Clean my guns" afterward...
Nerd From Hell
>
>
>
>
> John D. Giorgis
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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