Election 2004: Vote Early and OftenNovember 17, 2004
Friday, October 22, 2004, 11:03 PM
NYT Headline: "Florida's High Court Rules Recounts Can Go On".
The lead paragraph:
"The Florida Supreme Court ruled today that at least two largely Democratic counties ould continue recounting ballots by hand, but a welter of pending legal challenges left in unclear whether any such votes would officially count in determining the outcome of the presidential race."
You can count 'em, but they might not count. Uh huh.
Jeb Bush finally put in a reappearance at the state capitol after days of keeping a low profile. Bush was photographed hanging out at his 1,500 acre ranch.
Palm Beach County's recount was back on, after the Florida Supreme Court decision. Thev olunteers started late that night and expected to take six days to finish.
The new chad standards: hanging and swinging chads would be counted, and ballots with tri-chads and pregnant chads would be put in a separate pile to be counted or not depending on the voter's intention, as best as the counters could discern it.
The hot topic of the day: what is abuse of discretion, and has Katherine Harris done it? That was the issue before Judge Lewis, in state court; in federal court, at the 11th Circuit, media camped out waiting for a decision on the recounts that didn't come.
Gore officially got Oregon and Iowa's electoral votes, still not enough to do him any good.
Yet another article was in the day's paper about our fine election system. "It's that old saying: to err is human, to really screw things up, you need a computer..." (p A29).
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