DougR said:

"Mollificent: There is no evidence that anyone stole any votes in Florida! There is ample evidence that a lot of folks have difficulty following ballot directions though."

Please don't misinterpret me, Doug--I certainly didn't mean to be hostile or accusatory, and I apologize if I came across that way. What I said was that lots of votes had been thrown out because of confusion and faulty procedures. I also said that though there have been hints of "intimidation" as the Rev. Jackson put it, I have no educated opinion on that. I didn't say that anyone "stole" votes. But the fact remains that 20,000 people feel seriously disenfranchised, and I don't think the Republicans should be brushing this off, nor should Bush be patting himself on the back and saying, "I'm the president! Nyah nyah nyah!" when it's quite possible that he isn't.

Another point: If all those votes really did belong to Buchanan, why aren't the 3000 Buchanan voters stepping forward and saying, "Yes, there is no mistake, we do support Buchanan and this huge discrepancy in his votes is simply a coincidence"? Why is it all Gore voters insisting that a mistake has been made? It seems to me that if even Pat B. concedes the votes probably didn't belong to him, that's reason enough for a re-vote just in Palm Beach county. If 3000 people voted for Buchanan, then they should be happy to step back into the booth and reaffirm their vote.

I know a re-vote is legally unlikely, because of the media exposure, but I still think it's the only fair way to settle this. If people are going to go back in and change their vote, that's one thing--but, say, if thousands of Nader voters decide to switch back for Gore, that's going to be fairly obviously displayed in Nader's numbers, isn't it? I would hope they wouldn't be that dumb (hope springs eternal ;)) However, the chances of 3000 honest-to-God Buchanan voters spontaneously switching their votes to Gore is pretty damn unlikely. Nader's numbers taking a dive would be suspect: Buchanan's, only to be expected.

In a way, I feel sorry for Bush--as Roger Ebert says, he can't win. Either he ends up somehow losing to Gore, or he takes home a controversial victory and goes into his presidency with a cloud of anger, suspicion and disenfranchisement hanging over his head. Poor guy.

What a weird week.

Moll