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Totally Stumped
North Miami Beach, Florida 11-10-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
TOTALLY STUMPED
I must say that I am displeased at the unfinished process. I was unhappy
with my ballot that did not seem to fit in the slot lining up the names of
candidates with spots the "pin" was to punch. I "hoped" I had inserted the
pin correctly and the punch lined up with the name of my candidate. There
was a difference between the Palm Beach ballot and ours in Dade County. One
side of ours was in English and the other side was in Spanish so the same
person's name was on either side of the punch point
I studied the Palm Beach ballot with names alternating on two sides with
the "punch" spots in between. The arrows pointing to the names were there
but you could make mistakes. Correcting the mistakes by punching two spots
only compounded the mistake and caused ballots to be discarded without
counting.
I am totally stumped like the rest of you. To go on and conclude that Gore
lost and Bush won this early, without waiting for the absentee ballots seems
to be improper because the vote is so close - and not just in Florida.
I noticed that Florida's counties revote is reported earlier here than in
the rest of the country which relies on "Election Teams" processing the
information and then hoping that they do not mess it up by early reporting
incorrect data. The Media has a black eye on that one. They reported much
too early that Gore had won and then the seesaw of changing the numbers
began and made most of us more than concerned.
The mindset that Bush won was and is premature. The election shows a
divided country with half voting for Democrats and half for Republicans. I
am sure that supporters of Ralph Nader have had second thoughts. It is
interesting to note that those Palm Beach County voters who thought they
were voting for Al Gore and actually voted for Pat Buchannon want not a
recount, but a revote.
At this point I am totally stumped as to what is good for the country. I
do not think that Gore should graciously concede when so much is still in
doubt. I thought it interesting to hear the story that because of early
predictions Gore began a trek to concede. I can understand the impatience
of G.W. Bush in wanting to end the confusion and assume the mantle of
winner. What do you think?
Carol's Evaluation: 9 out of 10.
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