The US Election: Victory by Trial?
Every vote must count: This is the de facto slogan of the Democrats. They sought and won judicial approval to hand count more than a million ballots in the three largest and mostly Democrat counties in Florida. Despite their self-professed fervor that every vote must count, they apparently thought a different standard should apply to absentee ballots cast by members of the United States military. More than a thousand overseas military absentee ballots were rejected summarily because of flawed postmarks. The Democrat argument therefore essentially comes to this: If someone did not mark the ballot clearly or marked it twice, that vote should count. If the ballot arrived at the designated location in compliance with the statutory deadline, is marked clearly, but lacks the proper postmark, that vote should not count. The reason: The unclearly marked ballots favor Mr. Gore. The overseas ballots which are clearly marked but improperly postmarked favor Mr. Bush.
The votes are all cast and delivered, and the re-counting continues. Now the decision is in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court where the result will be linked to what the meaning of "vote" is. And politicians wonder why Americans are so cynical? Perhaps the New Mexico legislature has the best solution: It statutorily requires that all close elections should be determined by a game of chance between the candidates. The presidency of the United States decided by a coin toss or a game of cards? It does have a measure of logic: Cards and coins are not bias; they do not vote; and the result could be known very quickly. The notion of a coin toss to determine the presidency may sound bizarre, but that would place it in agreement with all the other bizarre events of this election.
The election will of course be decided by more legalistic methods, and at the end of it one candidate will emerge victorious probably as a result of a court rendered opinion. Whoever wins, he must by necessity be a uniter rather than a divider of public factions. He must also work diligently to ensure his perceived legitimacy among the American electorate and the world leaders to whom his administration will encourage to adopt democratic principles of government. Until that time the American voters and the voters in emerging and future democracies can only wait, watch, and wonder as this complex Constitutional process to select the next leader of the free
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