So, who will be president? Leave it to the bumblers in Florida to muck up our system.
I think right now that Bush will win. Why you might ask? Well his brother is governor of the state in quetsion and the women in charge of the FLA election rules a big Bush supporter. Is that really why? I doubt, mostly because I think they would heve screwed any wrongdoing up. Why then, because I'm a pessimist and I love Buffalo sports teams which have lost 6 major league championships in my life time (many closely) so I am used to it, but man I still love 'em.
OK, so I think Bush will win. But, for what it's worth, I do not and will not accept him as the legitimate presidnt. This is because of Florida's system of voting. They use a punch-card system which I have never heard of until this election. It is a card where you punch out little perforated squares to indicate your selection. The problem is that the squares tend not to rip completely off and that sometimes they close back up going through the counting machines. This is why hand counting is needed. So, what do we have in Florida? We have an outdated voting system that marks about 5% of the votes as blank. Then in a very democratic county we have a ballot that has two things wrong with it: 1. Gore is place third after the reform party, so many people saw Bush first and made the poor assumption that the next hole would be for Gore; 2. The ballot that was shown in the paper was slightly differnt than the actual one, although the gore/bush/buchanon part was not changed. Both of these cause the ballot to be illegal since. So we then have about 3,000 voted for Buchanon (out of 19,000 in the whole country) that even he says can't be for him.
If you saw a poll that said 48% want 1 guy and 48% want another with a margin of error of +/- of 5% you would be wise to ignore it. Well, that's what we have here folks. Only the +/- might be worse than 5%.
What's the solution? That's the joke there isn't one.
The only thing close would be a Florida revote (only for the people who voted the first time), but that would take forever in the courts.
The longtterm solution is a reworking of the election system which must at the very least include:
1. a removal of electors from the process, since even now, one elector from many states could change sides and shift the whole election. No one should have that power
2. the requirement of all presidential elections to have mechanical voting booths or some other way that does not lose votes.
I think if the electors remain, because we have to leave it the way the founding fathers wanted it, then we must return the Constitution to its original form where each elector got 2 votes and the person with the most becomes pres and the seconf becomes vp. I would be perfectly happy with those 2 both in the Whitehouse. Hey congress is looking more even than ever, why not the presidency. Plus it might be fun like in this week's SNL Odd Couple routine.
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my eyes, the goggles do nothing
<font color="#000000">[Edited by jourgenson on November 14, 2000 (edited 1 time)]</font>
I think right now that Bush will win. Why you might ask? Well his brother is governor of the state in quetsion and the women in charge of the FLA election rules a big Bush supporter. Is that really why? I doubt, mostly because I think they would heve screwed any wrongdoing up. Why then, because I'm a pessimist and I love Buffalo sports teams which have lost 6 major league championships in my life time (many closely) so I am used to it, but man I still love 'em.
OK, so I think Bush will win. But, for what it's worth, I do not and will not accept him as the legitimate presidnt. This is because of Florida's system of voting. They use a punch-card system which I have never heard of until this election. It is a card where you punch out little perforated squares to indicate your selection. The problem is that the squares tend not to rip completely off and that sometimes they close back up going through the counting machines. This is why hand counting is needed. So, what do we have in Florida? We have an outdated voting system that marks about 5% of the votes as blank. Then in a very democratic county we have a ballot that has two things wrong with it: 1. Gore is place third after the reform party, so many people saw Bush first and made the poor assumption that the next hole would be for Gore; 2. The ballot that was shown in the paper was slightly differnt than the actual one, although the gore/bush/buchanon part was not changed. Both of these cause the ballot to be illegal since. So we then have about 3,000 voted for Buchanon (out of 19,000 in the whole country) that even he says can't be for him.
If you saw a poll that said 48% want 1 guy and 48% want another with a margin of error of +/- of 5% you would be wise to ignore it. Well, that's what we have here folks. Only the +/- might be worse than 5%.
What's the solution? That's the joke there isn't one.
The longtterm solution is a reworking of the election system which must at the very least include:
1. a removal of electors from the process, since even now, one elector from many states could change sides and shift the whole election. No one should have that power
2. the requirement of all presidential elections to have mechanical voting booths or some other way that does not lose votes.
I think if the electors remain, because we have to leave it the way the founding fathers wanted it, then we must return the Constitution to its original form where each elector got 2 votes and the person with the most becomes pres and the seconf becomes vp. I would be perfectly happy with those 2 both in the Whitehouse. Hey congress is looking more even than ever, why not the presidency. Plus it might be fun like in this week's SNL Odd Couple routine.
----------------------------
my eyes, the goggles do nothing
<font color="#000000">[Edited by jourgenson on November 14, 2000 (edited 1 time)]</font>
