Ok. First my full disclosure: I did not vote in this election for several reasons; I am fiscal conservative, generally a social liberal, an absolutist on free speech and have some libertarian utopian sympathies. Oh, and I currently reside in South Florida. 1. There were of course close to 20,000 double votes for president in Palm Beach County. In 1996 there were 16,000. Double votes are common throughout the country every election: especially in counties with high senile (elderly to be charitable) populations. It is highly doubtful that people picked one choice, then realized it was wrong and picked another...what almost certainly happened with the double votes is that people thought they were poking holes for both president and vice president. When both names on a ticket are printed on a ballot, voters often make this error. To invalidate an election because of voter error would require overturning the national results and put every previous election in doubt. Sorry, not going to happen. 2. As for the number of Buchanan supporters: I don't know. Palm Beach County does have a heavy Jewish population. Because the Jewish population is so large, there is an undercurrent of anti-Semitism (especially among the lest well-off) in the county as well. Apparently, the various incarnations of the Reformed Party do have about 9,000 registered voters in Palm Beach County so it is not entirely inconceivable that Buchanan could garner 3800 votes. Nevertheless, let's assume that there were say 1,000 votes switched (beyond that, well there's always some voter error on any ballot, anywhere in the country), assuming that the overseas ballots come back heavily Republican (which they almost certainly will), it may well turn out that Bush will have a final margin of more than 1,000 votes in Florida. Hey, we don't actually know yet who won the popular vote (probably Gore by something under 80,000 votes) 3. Legally speaking, there almost certainly will not be and could not be a revote. First, to invalidate an election requires gross fraud or technical error. The threshhold is extremely high. The time to challenge ballots and procedures is before, not after, an election. A revote would be fundamentally unfair as pointed out before...and the result would be to overturn the outcome; Palm Beach County is heavily Democratic...put it this way...immense sums of money would be spent to bus every county resident to the polls resulting in close to 100% turnout, resulting in the County having far more weight than it otherwise would have...even an all-Florida revote would be unfair, but at least the Republicans could point out that when the networks early announced for Gore, they may have discouraged voter turnout in the panhandle among Republicans. More to the point: any election other than the one specified in the Constitution (the one on Tuesday) would probably be unconstitutional, barring extraordinary circumstances, something which a court simply would not dare to find here. It is highly doubtful that a Florida court could actually invalidate a federal election and declare a revote; and a federal court would be even less likely to do so. At the Supreme Court level I think you would find a decision somewhere along the 9-0, 8-1 line...To declare a revote would be to announce Gore as the winner (just look at the Palm Beach demographics...assume that the 2/3 Democrat vote would proceed across the higher turnout (which it would) and Gore wins)...a court simply will not find it in the public interest to overturn an election without fraud, but with some voter error and basically find for the other candidate. Short of gross voter fraud, a court won't do it. If Gore is not ahead post-recount and the foreign ballots, he should concede. Same goes for Bush post recounts in Iowa, Wisconsin and New Mexico (which seems to be quid pro quo). Nathan Freeburg
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