Election 2004: Vote Early and OftenNovember 9, 2000
Thursday, October 14, 2004, 10:54 PM
It was like having an upchuck-in-your-bed-cause-you-can't-make-it-to-the-toilet hangover for the second day in a row. We woke up to the unbelievable: no one knew who won. Here's the headline of the day: "Bush Barely Ahead of Gore in Florida as Recount Holds Key to the Election".
Best phone conversation excerpt:
"Mr. Bush told Mr. Gore that his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, had just assured him that FLorida was his, according to Gore aides.
'Let me explain something,' Mr. Gore said. 'Your younger brother is not the ultimate authority on this.' "
This year, it seems that the CEO of Diebold is the ultimate authority.
An editorial by Akhil Reed Amar called for the abolition of the electoral college. Here we are, four years later, with the same bad system, oh, except that now we have deployed many more electronic voting machines where a recount becomes nigh on impossible.
It had been over a century since the last time that no one knew who one for over a day after the polls closed. Perhaps this will become the new trend: election by lawsuit, to be determined sometime in late December. It could be worse. It could be election at gunpoint...
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