Election
2000 --
What's To Be Learned
by bobby jennings
 When I
was teenager,-?I wanted to wear my hair
longer and my parents wanted me to have a very short
crew cut.-? During these arguments I repeated the
teenage anthem, "That's not fair". They-?
would repeat the Parents stock reply, "Too bad,
life's not fair".-? I eventually won that
argument, but it took me several years of persistent
confrontation. True, life may not be fair, but at 55 I feel,
just as I did at 14, that life should be fair and that
we must always persistently confront those that would
not be fair.-?
But
confrontation often must take a form other than mere
verbal or written exchange, for arguing with someone
whose goal is something other than fairness is nothing
more than an exercise in futility. In this, or any
election, to argue whether every vote should be counted
and recounted until the outcome is known is one such
futility.
Chris
Matthews of MSNBC call the aftermath of this election the
best of Machiavellian politics played out in the openness
of American society. I, on the other hand, am
confronted and moved by images of:
-
Jewish
voters openly weeping upon learning that they had
mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan rather than Joe
Lieberman.
-
A
prominent Georgia congressman referring to Jewish
and black voters of Palm Beach County, Florida, as
stupid and ignorant and not worthy of having their
votes counted.
-
Protesting
old ladies being pushed, bullied, and shouted down
by angry "white males".
-
Angry
"white males" storming and disrupting
election offices in Miami-Dade County in Florida.
-
The
lone female election official in Miami-Dade County looking more like a "battered wife" than a
public servant.
-
The hypocrisy
of campaign speeches and actions
in the post election.
Just what would have been fair in the
Florida election given the facts of third party
candidates and known results after the fact? That's
really easy. Simply hand count "all" the votes
whether cast by machine, paper, or flawed absentee
ballots with voter intent in mind as provided by Florida
law. Why didn't it happen? Because Republican leaders
did not want to count all the votes. A close study of
the voting statistics county by county and precinct by
precinct shows that Al Gore was the likely winner by
10's of thousands of votes. Should all votes have been
counted? Of course -- it would have been fair.
In this election, fairness slipped
from our grasp and in its place we were bombarded
by partisan dribble served up to us predictably by
politicians, but more disturbingly by newscasters, clearly
cheering for one side or the other. Clearly, from the
dust that settles, some changes need to be made before
2002 and 2004.-?
-
Voters should pay attention to
who they are electing as their local voting
official. Often this race goes unnoticed and the
incumbent is elected year after year regardless of
age and competency. This may be the single most
important vote
a citizen casts.
-
The current electoral college
system is unfair but so is a direct vote unfair and
impractical. A fair approach would be to revise the
electoral college to elect 2 members for each state
in a "winner take all" as we currently do, but then
also elect one member for each congressional district based on
the candidate preferred in that district so that
electors are split in a state according to the vote.
-
The Federal Election Commission
should research and decide on a nationwide uniform
voting system. Congress should then create a
"no strings attached" grant to allow-?the
states and counties to optionally-?purchase the
uniform system. This would cost less than one B-1
bomber. Modern and efficient election equipment is a non-luxury we certainly deserve.
-
Citizens should compel their
states to write or rewrite their election laws so
they are clear, concise, and not contradictory. The
election statutes in Florida are not unusual, for
most of the Florida statues and those of many other
states are ambiguous, contradictory, and enforced on
the whim of the executive branch of government.
-
Violations of election laws and
conflict of interests should be regularly investigated and
punished with the severity they deserve, for these
violations are truly "crimes against the people".-?
-
National election day should be a
national holiday with picnics, brass bands, and
people proudly sporting "I voted" stickers. Surely
this has more merit than the historically flawed
"Columbus Day" and I'm sure the honorees of
"Presidents Day" would approve.
Many
would call the American democratic system the best in
the world and perhaps that is so, but in the end it
still remains flawed and unfair. We can do better. Maybe
Robert Kennedy's moving statement best speaks to what
our future must be.
"Some
men see things as they are and say why?
I dream things
that never were and say why not?"
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