Thoughts about the 2000 Presidential election

by Bill Stell

Consider...

1. All Al Gore had to do to win the election was to carry Tennessee, his home state.

2. It is incorrect to refer to votes that were "not counted". Some votes were "discounted", which is to say they were looked at twice, found invalid (dimpled) and discarded.

3. The same folks who applauded when the Supreme Court "found" a constitutional right to privacy in Roe vs. Wade; and were pleased when the Supreme Court of Florida changed the rules (legislated) an extension to time limits put in place by the Legislature; these same folks were then offended when the U. S. Supreme Court found a violation of equal protection and due process rights by a 7-2 vote.

4. Rev. Jesse Jackson, in calling for taking the fight "into the streets" to trigger a "civil rights explosion", has disavowed everything his idol, Martin Luther King stood for.

5. Al Gore, while calling for the counting of every vote, brought suit to have absentee ballots thrown out. The fact that most of these came from our sons and daughters serving their country's military presence abroad is especially revealing. Secondly, gore's call for a recount was addressed to only a few heavily Democratic counties. Had he called for a statewide recount, the result might have been different; but when offered this by the Florida Supreme Court, his lawyers declined.

6. Al Gore's nationwide plurality was 48.315%. While he won more votes that George W. Bush, he (like Clinton in 1992) did not have a majority.

7. The tremendous strides achieved in race relations in the past 30 years have suffered a terrible setback. Why did 90% of the blacks vote for Gore? We need to explore that, without resuming affirmative action, which is based on the premise that blacks are inferior.

8. The low expectations of our new president Bush can e an asset. Whatever he gets done in  the way of nonpartisanship will be seen as an unexpected victory.

9 On reflection, I am amazed by the 19th century voting procedures in place in Florida and (apparently) elsewhere. I voted in Virginia, using a touch screen, with which it is impossible to vote for more than one candidate, so the chances of a voided vote are nil. Also, the computerized total is available immediately, not relying on either a machine or a people count.