From: Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Date: Tue Nov 28 2000 - 05:41:03 PST
Tom Whore writes:
> Why just FLA? This is what burns me> are you people listening. Only the
> votes in places that MIGHT make gore gets votes are important. What about
> the countys were elctions were cut off, what about the precincts in NYC
> where i know from decades of experience many ballots were dumped.
Huh? By current rules, there aren't enough electoral votes in play in
other closely contested states to make a difference --- Florida holds
the swing votes no matter what. And recounting states that aren't
closely contested, such as New York (where Gore got a 25% margin of
victory, over 1.5 million votes), is just pointless; it can't change
the outcome.
And if you're suggesting that the thing be decided by total popular
vote instead, Gore already has that by a small, but at this point
fairly secure margin of a few hundred thousand votes.
(There's also Phil Agre's argument that if we were deciding this thing
by popular vote, we'd see something like the Florida mess nationwide,
as everyone tried to squeeze more votes out of the precincts they
controlled --- the way Harris quietly, and without comment, *did*
accept manual recounts from Republican-controlled counties that
conducted them).
> What
> about the folks who were turned away from elction places because of
> confusin ID requiremnts.
If you're talking about the ones in Florida, this is grounds for a
contest, although I don't know if it's one of the matters currently
being contested (haven't read the briefs).
rst
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