Penny,
A lot of the stuff surrounding the ballot mess is not because people don't
want to give any regard to those people who messed up their ballots. There
are a bunch of laws surrounding the handling of the ballots. From what I
heard on NPR, many of the people who double-punched had already put their
ballots in the ballot box. When they asked for a new ballot to re-do it,
the person overseeing that polling place could not, by law, give them
another ballot once the original ballot went in the box. The overseer is
not allowed by law to open up the ballot box and take the "bad" ballots out.
It's easy to say let everyone re-vote but truly you must consider that some
people would change their votes now that they know how the election is
turning out. It's would be giving an unfair advantage no matter how noble
the intention and it would set bad precedent legally. Jim is right that
everything that the courts allow can be used in the future in other cases.
Usually courts take the long view on deciding these things and they also
have to strongly consider existing law and precedents. The only pure and
untainted way to rectify this situation is to let the whole country vote
again. I'm not saying one way or another that this is what we should do,
but it would be the proper "protocol" in this instance.
I was talking with a co-worker tonight about this situation (she voted for
Gore) and we both were laughing about this - not laughing at the people who
messed up their ballots in Florida - but because we both are totally certain
that these mess-ups had to have happened in all 50 states this election.
There is always a margin of error in any kind of statistical undertaking and
it is probably exponential in the more populous states, some of which could
also have a significant effect on the final count and the awarding of the
electoral votes. What amused us, in a good way, is that this whole
situation WILL be ultimately beneficial for the country. A number of states
have already voluntarily begun re-counts and I would bet that many other
states don't want to be left behind in this process, either. I know that if
I were the voting honcho whatever in charge for a particular state, I'd want
to make damn sure to audit my results and get a clean bill of health so to
speak, so that no one could later point any finger at the way my state
conducted the voting process. It's almost like a forced audit of the whole
bunch, and that is a great. There is a great silver lining in this chaos.
Kakki
