In another thread here in the Pit, TVeblen described the situation in the Presidential election in Florida accurately and eloquently (as she always does) as a “definitive clusterfuck.”
Right now Bush appears to have a razor-thin lead in the vote tabulation, 229 votes according to CNN.com. That’s less than one-half of one-tenth of one percent of the approximately 6 million votes cast. Whatever the results of the recount of ballots are, everyone expects that Bush’s lead will be iced by the several thousand overseas absentee ballots coming in over the next eight days.
But there’s a problem. It seems the Presidential ballots in Palm Beach County were put together in a manner that many voters found confusing. This is borne out by both the fact that many voters have stated that they were confused and submitted ballots that did not reflect their proper choice for President, and that votes for Buchanan and double-punched ballots were unusually high. In addition, some voters reported improperly being denied substitute ballots when they erroneously punched theirs.
As a result, there are a heck of a lot of people in Palm Beach County who intended to vote for Gore but instead ended up submitting either a ballot for Buchanan or one that was invalid because it was double-punched. I don’t think that anyone can realistically say that if everyone who went to the polls in Palm Beach County submitted ballots accurately reflecting their views, that Bush would be in the lead right now.
But the question now becomes “so what?”
There are two competing interests here. The first is that the ballots were what they were, the were not actively misleading, and if voters screwed them up, well that’s their tough luck. As a general policy, we want elections to be resolved quickly and effectively, and complaining about the layout of the ballot or other minor matters after an election generally does not promote the democratic process.
The second interest, on the other hand, is that the voters of Palm Beach County have the important constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choice. It is clear that a significant number of voters were confused by the ballot layout. There are a number of technical problems with the ballot, including that the law and custom is that the candidates from the major parties (those having the most votes in the last gubernatorial election) should be on top of the ballots, and the minor party candidates below them. There are other issues with the ballot layout, instructions, and method of insertion of the ballot card, which will I’m sure be discussed at length in the coming days. If I were a Palm Beach County voter, I would be damn pissed if my vote were not to go to the candidate I intended.
Again, the question is “so what?”
Well, normally this sort of stuff doesn’t make much difference. Elections are usually won or lost by large enough margins that minor quibbles and irregularities are just put aside, or when elections are for minor offices, it’s not worth fighting over these points.
But here we have an election for the highest office in the land balanced on a knife’s edge. If the Palm Beach County votes are counted “as is,” then Bush wins. If the votes in Palm Beach County are counted as the voters intended them to be, then Gore wins.
Well here we have, as TVeblen so eloquently put it a “definitive clusterfuck.” At this point, the question has obviously gone beyond “so what” into "so what do we do now?’
Well one thing that can be done is for one side or another to throw in the towel. There’s a problem with this, though, in that both sides have a legitimate claim as to why they should win, and more important, why their victory would be the will of the voters. This is both unrealistic and unsatisfactory. Even more than I want my candidate to win, I want the American election process to remain fair and democratic.
In this fair and democratic society, how do we resolve disputes between parties with competing rights and interests? As we operate under the rule of law, we resolve those disputes in court. With something so important at stake, and so finely balanced, it is inevitable that we will address this through litigation.
An important aspect of this litigation is who is suing whom. It is not the candidates suing, but rather voters in Palm Beach County suing state and county elections officials for alleged infringement of their voting rights. The voters are the ones whose interests must be protected.
Now the judge that gets assigned this case, and soon afterwards the Florida Supreme Court (and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court) will be facing an incredibly difficult decision. They will have to assess, under existing election law, whether the ballot in Palm Beach County was so confusing as to be unfair to the voters, and if so, what should be done. Through a bizarre series of circumstances, this decision in one county will determine the direction of the country for the next four years.
Whatever your views on the ultimate resolution of this question, decisions of this sort are made by the courts every day, though rarely with such profound consequences. Simply put, the adequacy of the Palm Beach County ballot is the type of legal question that can and should be resolved by our court system.
Now, having explained the circumstances of the “definitive clusterfuck,” here’s my rant.
Would everybody just shut the fuck up about who is screwing whom, and who is stealing what from whom, and who is a sore loser, and who is improperly acting presidential until we let our democratic processes resolve this situation. We cannot even know the vote totals (ignoring the Palm Beach County situation) until the foreign absentee ballots come in 8 days from now, so all of your bitching and moaning is premature.
The candidates have largely been doing the right thing by keeping their heads down until a resolution is closer, but their surrogates (and unaffiliated supporters) are spouting their mouths off and poisoning the atmosphere for everyone.
The media are complicit in this process, repeatedly replaying the clips of the loudest and least productive screamers, and largely ignoring those advocating caution and rationality.
It’s like we’re all screaming at the referee as he is trying to make a call based on an instant replay. Though this is a disputed play in the last seconds of the Super Bowl, yelling at the ref will simply not improve the decision process.
Whether you like or dislike the system we have in which the courts resolve disputed calls, it’s the system we have. It is more important for our country that we have a President that was chosen in accordance with our law in a manner that protects the rights of our citizens than the particular candidate we elect.
So, again, shut the fuck up, quit your premature bitching, and let our democratic processes do their work