Letters to the Editors

Voters should decide election, not the courts

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000

Whatever happens in the next few days, let us hope that neither the Florida Supreme Court nor the U.S. Supreme Court makes the decision as to who wins Florida's electoral votes. It must be a decision that the people make, and at this point it appears that the only fair way to determine the winner in Florida is a manual recount of every vote in all 67 counties, with whoever has the most votes after that recount to be declared the winner.

Both Al Gore and George W. Bush have to have the pressure put on them by all the voters (and the newspaper editorials) in the United States that that is the only acceptable method that can be used to settle Election 2000. It certainly is not fair if manual recounting is performed only in selected counties in Florida. All Americans will accept a decision that is based on fairness. They will not accept a decision that is based on partisan politics, voting irregularities, fraud, misrepresentation or a court decision.
-- Dan Stifflear, Palm Harbor

Statewide hand count seems fair

Re: Let's make a deal, editorial, Nov. 15.

As suggested in this Times editorial, a statewide hand count is a fair and equitable solution to this voting controversy.

I have been a voter for more than 54 years and never once gave a second thought to the idea that my selection would not be counted correctly. There now must be many more who wonder whether their respective choices were counted incorrectly because a ballot machine did not register the punch in the card.

To be told this is not unusual and does occur in every balloting is very disturbing, to say the least.
Russell Lee Johnson, St. Petersburg

Political involvements create bias

The elected attorney general, Bob Butterworth, served as Al Gore's Florida's campaign manager.

So here we have these two state officials, obviously extremely biased politically, giving the exact opposite guidance and direction to county election officials. Butterworth is telling the counties to perform a manual vote count to ensure the most accurate result, and Harris is busy trying to block any manual counts.

It seems to me that these people have no business being so politically involved. The courts seem to be the only recourse. I hope we can eliminate this conflict of interest as soon as the dust settles on our current mess.
John Inglis, Palm Harbor

Why the smear campaign?

What is with this nasty smear campaign waged through the media against Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris? Why is there an assumption that she is not enforcing the law as it is written? Instead of explaining the law and how she must carry it out, the media are focused on insinuation and character assassination.

Why is the Democratic Party not suppressing the mob scenes in South Florida? Such actions make Florida Democrats look like a pack of fools before a global audience.

I am a lifelong registered Democrat, but I am disgusted by how my party is handling the election results. Where has decency gone?
Henry Gotsch, Tampa

Ballot's defect rate was too high

While even a child can make sense of Palm Beach County's ballot when it's on a flat piece of paper, it requires the live, physical experience of being in a Florida voting stand to understand its problems. Only when you stick the card into the slot and you start pushing pins in like an acupuncturist (the holes seem like the spaces between the wires of a spiral notebook) can you understand how punching the right hole can go awry.

Ask any "human factors" expert: Would the 4 to 5 percent of voters who used that ballot incorrectly blow it through ignorance or because of its design, a first-time presidential ballot setup that seemed to diverge from Florida's legal requirements? A defect rate of that magnitude by a manufacturer in this country would obliterate that company on the global market. How can we consider such a flawed process worthy of deciding our nation's next president?
-- Brig Johnson, Tampa

Don't count improperly cast ballots

In every election, votes are miscast and not counted due to errors. In the Gore camp, Bill Daley and Warren Christorher are making slanderous statements about Florida's secretary of state and any other Republican they can blaspheme from their pulpit of self-righteousness. Would the residents of Palm Beach County have been so vocal about misvoting if a telemarketing firm had not called voters on Tuesday and planted seeds of doubt in their minds?

I don't care what the voters' intent was. If they didn't properly cast their ballots, they should not be counted.

I don't want some person deciding the intent of the voter. This process is violating my constitutional rights. Unless every ballot across the country is recounted by hand and all ballots that were not counted by machine are scrutinized for voter intent, the voting process will not be uniformly equal.

Are you ready for the distrust, riots and biases that will erupt across our country?
-- Phyllis Shaw, Inverness

Clean up those cards

Re: Let's make a deal.

I agree with your Nov. 15 editorial suggesting a total recount in Florida, but I would like to make the following addition. You ask any self-respecting scientist, he or she will tell you that if you do an experiment (like counting votes) twice in a machine and the two results are different, both of them may be wrong. Or at least one of them is bound to be wrong. The only way to confirm the correct result is to repeat the experiment a third time, now much more carefully.

Any computer scientist will quote "GIGO," "garbage in, garbage out." Feed a card-reader data with chads hanging in one, two or three corners and the computer will clearly return garbage. Card-readers are designed to recognize full holes, not partly covered holes.

Instead of a tedious hand count I wish to suggest the following. Remove the chads hanging in one, two or three corners by hand. These cards clearly indicate the voters' desire to punch that chad out. It is not necessary to go into their minds to know this as some spin-masters seem to suggest. Cards with the so-called dimpled or pregnant chads ought to be totally discarded. Most of the loosely hanging chads can be removed by simply holding a bunch of cards and flipping through them rapidly, as we see the volunteers doing at the recount centers. Now feed the cards into the machine and maybe one can produce a more accurate count.
-- Raghu Sarma, New Port Richey

Half and half

About one half of the country voted for George W. Bush. About one half of the country voted for Al Gore. I don't see how the American people can be very unhappy (or happy) whatever the final outcome of this election.

The Congress is pretty evenly divided, as are the citizens. I don't expect to see much accomplished in the next four years. Wouldn't it be nice if they all surprised us?

I think a couple of good things will come out of this. No doubt, the voting mechanism will be fine-tuned (or overhauled) to guarantee that in the future we get an accurate rendering of the people's intentions.

Plus, I think we can forever put to rest that tired old adage, "My one vote doesn't count."
-- Doris Whelan, St. Petersburg

Despair and disgust

Re: A year for non-voters to remember, letter, Nov. 13.

Unfortunately, the letter writer only gave me two choices (like our pitiful electoral system) to explain why I was a non-voter this year. The choices were: a) laziness and b) apathy.

I propose a third and fourth choice: c) despair and d) disgust. Better yet, how about both c and d!
-- Jim Reed, St. Petersburg

Don't forget this fiasco

The election fiasco in Florida has once again shown that perhaps Fidel Castro is correct: This state is a banana republic.

With the passing of each day, additional horror stories, voting irregularities and outright charges of fraud continue to garner the headlines and airwaves. Once more, the eyes of the world are on Florida and welled with tears from laughter as to the level of incompetence displayed.

Living in the Tampa Bay area for the past 10 years, I have seen nothing but idle chatter regarding our lack of water, lack of adequate infrastructure, lack of adequate educational facilities -- and the list goes on, ad nauseam. Solutions to these issues? Don't look to your elected officials; they appear to have difficulty changing a burned-out light bulb!

Now we read about the punch-card voting system, with all its inherent flaws, which could not be replaced due to cost. We can, however, find plenty of money to put a new stadium on every street corner and attempt to secure the 2012 World Olympics.

My basic rights under the U.S. Constitution guarantee me the right to a fair and honest vote. Now I wonder about the fairness of the system in general. Maybe it's time that the "silent masses" got rid of the "Joe Six-Pack" mentality and stood up for their rights.

I, for one, am totally disgusted with the recent events surrounding irregularities in the election process and state for the record, "We will survive this as a united people, but we will also remember this joke in 2002 when candidates start begging for support."

Perhaps former President Jimmy Carter should be commissioned to oversee Florida's election process. It's on par with elections held in most Third World countries.
-- Jerry Weisenbacher, Port Richey

Network call shouldn't stop a voter

I have, with dismay, heard reports that some people did not vote because "the networks" called the presidential race in some states early. Hogwash. The people chose not to vote. A proper citizen who wishes to vote will not be dissuaded even if his candidate is sure to lose. That person goes to the polls and makes sure his vote is counted.

I have no sympathy for anyone who makes the choice not to vote based on a network call with 2 percent of the vote in.
-- Adam Rothas, St. Petersburg

Voters needed a little more incentive

I would be interested to see how many of the "disfranchised" in Palm Beach County would have voted improperly if they had been asked to punch a hole next to the amount of money they would like to receive from the federal government on a weekly basis.
-- Robert C. Shelnutt Jr., Oldsmar

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