It's War!
Bill Daley flings down gauntlet as Florida ballot doubts build 
by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 -- NEW YORK (AmpolNS) -- Who in their right mind would have believed that America still doesn't have a winner in the Presidential race, nearly two full days after polls closed?

As we go to press, officials in Florida are on the verge of completing a mandatory recount that shows Bush leading Al Gore by just over 400 votes.

It's quite a contrast, so strongly at odds with events Tuesday night, when two of Bush's surrogates -- campaign spokesman Karl Rove and advisor Mary Matalin -- seemed so smug in their absolute, unwavering conviction that Bush would take the state after Voter News Service and the networks had given the state to Gore that many couldn't help thinking that the fix was in.

Now,  it turns out that voters -- and we're not just talking about elderly types with bad eyesight -- were so confused by the so-called "butterfly ballot" used in Palm Beach County that it appears Pat Buchanan got more than 2000 votes that should have gone to Gore.  Buchanan himself came out and said most of the people who voted for him intended to vote for Gore -- lending further credence to the perception that these ridiculous punch ballots have done for free elections what the Yugo did for automotive excellence.

Then, early this afternoon, the Gore campaign, which had been keeping their powder dry for the most part concerning the contested Florida ballot, unexpectedly threw down the gauntlet.

Campaign chairman Bill Daley addressed the "butterfly ballot" issue:

"There, due to a confusing butterfly ballot, many voters who believed they were voting for Al Gore had their votes counted for Pat Buchanan. No other explanation for his 3,400 vote total -- a sum three times large than he drew in any other county -- and 10 times the number of registered Reform Party voters who voted -- seems plausible. I am told that even Mr. Buchanan recognizes as much.... What does the Bush campaign say? They totally dismiss the disenfranchisement of thousands of Floridians as being the usual sort of mistake made in elections. They cite legal provisions about published ballots and technical notice. They put a demand for finality ahead of the pursuit of fairness."

The bottom line: Democrats will demand a follow-up recount by hand in a few areas of the state, including Palm Beach county and probably Volusia County -- and quite possibly a new election in areas that used the "butterfly ballots."

Daley's comments came shortly after a number of developments, including a dropping of a suit filed in West Palm Beach to have the Florida election voided, and a similar lawsuit was withdrawn to reportedly be filed in a higher court.  Also, Mother Jones reported this afternoon that thousands of Floridians were improperly identified as convicted felons and struck from Florida voter rolls, adding to a growing litany of voter irregularities in the Sunshine State. 

Make no mistake: Daley's comments were a declaration of war.  A political war necessary to assure that Floridians received a fair opportunity to clearly express their will in the voting booth -- and a war on an entrenched political system in a state long thought to have less-than-pristine standards and practices at election time.

It will also become a war in the court system -- perhaps even the Supreme Court -- and could trigger a constitutional crisis.

Perhaps that isn't such a bad thing.  The constitution is after all not some sacrosanct document -- it's an evolving process, just as our nation's culture has evolved.

And the Electoral College system is a rigorously conceived and time-proven mechanism for fair elections in America -- but may well have outlived its usefulness in the post-industrial Internet age.

Besides, Gore won the popular vote, leaving "Dauphin Dubya" with no mandate and half the electorate feeling Al, Joe and they "wuz robbed." 

As we go to press, Karen Hughes is addressing the press -- I've never seen her so vehement or, for that matter, angry.  You can practically see the daggers flying out of her eyes.  She knows it's war.

Bring it on, I say.

At the very least, it'll keep politics interesting -- and hopefully get people talking and thinking about the process.