[Vision2020] Voting and Protesting: History's Lessons?

Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:07:59 EST

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Donovan:

Indeed, in 2000 the Florida legislature was ready to send a Republican set of 
electors for Bush if the recount had shown Gore the winner.  Still, a 
Democratic set of electors for Gore would also have been sent based on the popular 
vote in Florida.  Then the decision as to who "won" the presidency would have 
ended up in the US Congress.

However, I believe, without getting into complicated legal theory, etc., that 
in Florida under "normal" circumstances the popular vote will determine the 
set of electors for the presidential election, so the votes for president in 
Florida do matter.  Clearly, in the past the popular vote in Florida has 
determined the set of electors for the electoral college.  If the system was truly 
set up so that as a matter of routine the legislature in Florida would select 
the electors for Florida, there would not be any reason to vote on the 
presidency in that state, would there?  If the legislature in Florida was the usual 
entity deciding Florida's electors, and not the popular vote, there would not 
have been a drawn out battle in the courts and counties in Florida over a recount 
of the popular vote that ended up in the US Supreme Court.

Anyway, my main point was that we as a nation have not followed through with 
the lessons we should have learned from Florida 2000 Gore v. Bush.  Our voting 
systems in the US are still fraught with the potential for unacceptable error 
rates, fraud and denial of access to many who are legally entitled to vote.

We can spend 100s of billions to bring Democracy to Iraq, but funding to 
guarantee the most fair and effective voting system, the cornerstone of Democracy, 
here in the USA, falls short.

Ted Moffett

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<HTML>
 Donovan:
 
 Indeed, in 2000 the Florida legislature was ready to send a Republican s=
et of electors for Bush if the recount had shown Gore the winner. &nbsp;Stil=
l, a Democratic set of electors for Gore would also have been sent based on=20=
the popular vote in Florida. &nbsp;Then the decision as to who "won" the pre=
sidency would have ended up in the US Congress.
 
 However, I believe, without getting into complicated legal theory, etc.,=
 that in Florida under "normal" circumstances the popular vote will determin=
e the set of electors for the presidential election, so the votes for presid=
ent in Florida do matter. &nbsp;Clearly, in the past the popular vote in Flo=
rida has determined the set of electors for the electoral college. &nbsp;If=20=
the system was truly set up so that as a matter of routine the legislature i=
n Florida would select the electors for Florida, there would not be any reas=
on to vote on the presidency in that state, would there? &nbsp;If the legisl=
ature in Florida was the usual entity deciding Florida's electors, and not t=
he popular vote, there would not have been a drawn out battle in the courts=20=
and counties in Florida over a recount of the popular vote that ended up in=20=
the US Supreme Court.
 
 Anyway, my main point was that we as a nation have not followed through=20=
with the lessons we should have learned from Florida 2000 Gore v. Bush. &nbs=
p;Our voting systems in the US are still fraught with the potential for unac=
ceptable error rates, fraud and denial of access to many who are legally ent=
itled to vote.
 
 We can spend 100s of billions to bring Democracy to Iraq, but funding to=
 guarantee the most fair and effective voting system, the cornerstone of Dem=
ocracy, here in the USA, falls short.
 
 Ted Moffett
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