20001109

Well, it's over....or is it? The much heralded election of 2000 came and happened and happened and happened....
The following graphic shows the almost final results:

The Almost Final Result in the 2000 Election

The two grayed states, Florida and Oregon are currently in the Bush column but not officially in the Bush column. Oregon is still counting the Absentee Ballots they went to exclusively this year to make their election fast and easy to tabulate. Perhaps with a little practice Oregon will make the process fast and easy to tabulate.
The state of Florida apparently had quite a few problems running an election at all. Their local officials (chosen in each area by the party in power there) were forgetting ballot boxes, having trouble figuring out the ballots they had chosen and authorized there, and generally running around in much confusion. A highlight of the almost-result was the charge levelled by Congressman Robert Wexler (D) of W. Palm Beach who was sleeping at the switch when his constituents selected a ballot they apparently couldn't figure out how to use (well about 22,000 of them couldn't anyway). Even though his county is controlled by Democrats, has a Supervisor of Elections that is a Democrat, Wexler has levelled the charge that there is Election Fraud because his constituents either voted for two candidates or voted for Pat Buchannen instead of Mr. Gore.

The infamous ballot Itself...Just Follow the Arrows!

Mr. Wexler says the ballot to the right was too confusing and violates all kinds of laws, moral standards, and laws of the creator. Here are the directions you would use to follow this ballot: 1) Select ONE candidate for President. 2) Follow the arrow to the hole. 3) Punch ONE hole.
As a courtesy to voters in Florida I am also publishing directions here to two other common difficulties:
Breathing: 1) Breath in. 2) Breath out.
Walking: 1) Left foot. 2) Right foot.
Mr. Wexler has joined the national media in attempting to reach some new level of the absurd in their unsubstantiated claims of scandel, low standards of behaviour, and wanton disregard for laws (it's the 12th Ammendment stupid) and procedures. The media is now actively attempting to manipulate the outcome by dredging up anything that might remotely be considered a scandal and then using it's spiffy Instant-Judgement technology to act as Judge, Jury, and Executioner within 16 seconds or less of hearing any rumor. After reporting for nearly a day that an abondoned box of ballots had been found in one polling place still locked, it was later discovered that it was a box of school supplies containing crayons and paper (at least the so called reporters could write more stories with the supplies). If you thought they couldn't get any goofier than they were on election night when they (CNN et al) called Florida as a Gore victory with less than 2% of the ballots counted, and with the western part of the state still voting, you ain't seen nothin yet.
Al Gore gave a nice speach last night about how the constitution had to be followed and how he wanted a fast but thorough accounting of the results. It seemed very nice and fair. His spokespeople stressed how they didn't want to provoke a constitutional crisis and mentioned about 20 times the irrelevant fact that they had won the popular vote (the 12th Ammendment of our constitution established the Electoral College, which is the wacky but legal authority on who won). Later in the night last night however Gore's hatchetmen started coming forward to cast doubt, make accusations, and generally push things in the direction of provoking a constitutional crisis. It seems obvious Gore will try to use court challanges, innuendo, and the media to force the outcome he wants. His people seem to have forgotten that had Gore been a halfway decent candidate it wouldn't have come down to the results of 22,000 people in W. Palm Beach, FL who couldn't follow ONE arrow to ONE hole and punch ONE time.
Stay tuned, there is certainly more to come than any of us want to hear about.

115 Hits Since November 2000

Last Updated 11/09/00