The more I think about what I'm hearing from the Florida Secretary of
State, as well as the Bush campaign, the more partisan and increasingly
ridiculous they seem. If I understand it right, Harris is saying that she
won't certify recounts because the only legal reason for certifying a
recount is machine error.
The machine counts differ from one another and from the hand counts. If
that isn't evidence of a machine error, what is? Furthermore, apparently
she's already certain that there was no machine error even though she
hasn't even seen the results of a full recount! She's making the
assumption that if there's a difference between the manual recount and the
machine count, the manual recount will have been wrong. Bush echoed this
notion last night by saying that a manual recount of the entire state would
undoubtedly be erroneous.
In other words, Harris and the Bush campaign think that in Florida, people
don't count... well. Pun intended, of course.
Rising above all this, as many have argued, is the fact that in a
democracy, a vote that accurately reflects the will of the people is
paramount. I'm having a hard time seeing Harris and the Bush campaign as
supportive of that idea any more.
Nick
