Chris Matthews had it right this morning. Jesse Jackson is part of our American political theater, and he will do what he does. But it's background noise. What's important is what people like Gephart, Daschel, etc. and their GOP counterparts do.
Gore lost because he had too many lawyers trying to be too clever, and they outsmarted themselves. It was a state-wide election, requiring a state-wide recount by nonpartisan counters using an objective state-wide standard for what consituted a legal vote for each type of voting machne.
Suspecting that Bush would win such a genuine recount, the Gore team's strategy was to cherry pick heavily Democrat counties (which they had already won by large margins!), using partisan canvasing boards willing to count dents and scratches (Broward, well into its count, started over and
changed its long-standing practice of not counting dimples when not enough Gore votes were being produced).
This was vote-dredging, not recounting. They got the partisan Florida Supreme Court to extend the statuatory deadlines, so there would be time to accomplish that. But such targeted "recounts" made no sense in terms of basic fairness (equal protection), and the U.S. Supreme Court hung them on that basis. By that time, their legal manueverings had run the clock out, and no time remained to go back and do it right.
Oops...
Gore lost because he had too many lawyers trying to be too clever, and they outsmarted themselves. It was a state-wide election, requiring a state-wide recount by nonpartisan counters using an objective state-wide standard for what consituted a legal vote for each type of voting machne.
Suspecting that Bush would win such a genuine recount, the Gore team's strategy was to cherry pick heavily Democrat counties (which they had already won by large margins!), using partisan canvasing boards willing to count dents and scratches (Broward, well into its count, started over and
changed its long-standing practice of not counting dimples when not enough Gore votes were being produced).
This was vote-dredging, not recounting. They got the partisan Florida Supreme Court to extend the statuatory deadlines, so there would be time to accomplish that. But such targeted "recounts" made no sense in terms of basic fairness (equal protection), and the U.S. Supreme Court hung them on that basis. By that time, their legal manueverings had run the clock out, and no time remained to go back and do it right.
Oops...