Presidential Cliffhanger

By the count as of Wednesday morning, Al Gore won the popular vote by a plurality of 48.8% to 48.5%. Ralph Nader received 2.7% of the vote. Together, Gore and Nader received 51.5% of the popular vote. The liberals clearly won this presidential election.

Given that the difference in vote count between Gore and George W. Bush in Florida is so small, and given the discrepancy between the exit polls and the vote count in that state (suggestive of irregularities in the vote count), it is only prudent to declare Gore the next president of the U.S. To do otherwise would be to further alienate American voters. The people have spoken, and by any reasonable criterion, Al Gore won this election.

JIM DWYER

Monrovia

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Gore should accept defeat gracefully. He shouldn’t plunge our nation into a needless and divisive constitutional crisis. Let America heal and move on.

JOHN NORMAN

Fullerton

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The majority of Americans want Gore to be president. In a race between only Bush and Gore, the majority for Gore becomes much more dramatic. If the Jeb Bush-controlled state of Florida recounts to find that George W. Bush wins by a few hundred votes in Florida, they will remind us about the Electoral College.

Some have suggested the race could be caught up in the courts unless one candidate concedes defeat. What’s the solution? The Electoral College members can actually vote for someone other than whom they were expected to vote for. This solution allows the country to have the president voters selected and to avoid a constitutional crisis.

NATHAN JAMES

Pleasant Hill, Calif.

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There is nothing like a really close election to encourage scrutiny of institutions like the Electoral College. I had learned that each state is entitled to one vote for each of its representatives (roughly responsive to its population) and one vote for each of its senators. This favors small states over large states.

As I learned Wednesday morning that the presidential race was too close to call, I wondered what the election would be like without senatorial overrepresentation in the Electoral College. With 538 voters, the college would have 438 without the 100 senators and 220 votes would be needed to win. Without the senators, Bush would have 188 electors, Gore would have 222 electors (just over those needed to win) and 28 electors would be too close to call.

Makes you wonder.

BILL STANTON

Garden Grove

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In California, there is an electoral vote for each 122,000 voters. In Wyoming, there is an electoral voter for each 69,000 voters. A vote in Wyoming is worth almost twice as much as a vote in California. This is not “one person, one vote.” This is a biased system. Abolish the Electoral College!

MICHAEL HESSE

Westlake Village

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I wonder if the same people who enjoyed reminding us that Bill Clinton was not elected by the majority of voters (when the votes for former President George Bush and Ross Perot were combined) will be as indignant about a president who loses the popular vote but wins the Electoral College?

R.L. ASHURST

Huntington Beach

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Re the election night wild ride: If only all the campaigning had been this entertaining!

LINDA J. CHARLES

Los Angeles

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Regardless of the final tally in Florida, the message of the popular vote is clear. The country is equally, if not bitterly, split. Now each side stares at the other across a deep divide of ambivalence. The future president’s first order of business should be to bridge that chasm and bring together not only left and right but those in the middle who have stopped caring. Good luck!

DAVID A. BAIRD

Los Angeles

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How about Bush gets the first two years and Gore the next? Or Gore gets the left half of the country and Bush gets the right, from the north-facing perspective? (An appropriate division given the political leanings of each, don’t you think?) Or there is always the good old American coin toss. Please call it in the air.

MIKE KILGORE

Los Angeles

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Tuesday night’s election proves once and for all that television coverage should not begin until the following day. Their undue influence is a hindrance to all parties concerned. In addition, I feel that absentee voting policies should be overhauled or abolished. If you’re not here, you don’t vote. Too bad.

There are people who actually live and work in one state and illegally vote absentee in another state. Look at all the locals driving without California license plates because they refuse to pay our high state fees. Who knows where and how many times they vote?

JOHN PLAIT

Ventura

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Another election and another series of exit polls. Just what is an exit poll? I assume tallies are made after people come out from the polling booths. If this is correct, whatever happened to the principle of the secret ballot, supposedly a core concept of voting in a democracy? As far as I am concerned, if someone were to ask me for whom I had voted as I left the polling booth, the proper answer for me would be, “It’s none of your business.”

SANFORD ROTHMAN

Los Angeles

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Shame on Nader for telling voters that there is no difference between Gore and Bush, and no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. And shame on his supporters for believing that the lofty “principles” Nader touts were worth throwing the election to Bush. Unfortunately, Nader ends up looking very much like a garden-variety politician, in that his ego has triumphed over his many years of truly principled stands. In his desire to “shake up” the two parties he has certainly made a difference. But looking to the immediate future, with the Supreme Court at stake, it seems to me to be a purely negative one. When women’s right to choose is threatened and Alaska’s pristine wildernesses are drilled for oil, the differences between the two candidates and the two parties will stand out in stark contrast.

Nader has a strong and commendable record of public service, but in the final analysis of the presidential election of 2000, Nader’s political epitaph will be “Spoiler.”

LISA B. KARPF

Long Beach

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I watched the election with a group of like-minded friends, all as liberal as the day is long and just for the record: None of us will ever vote for Nader or any Green Party candidate. The animosity was deep.

JENNIFER HORSMAN

Laguna Beach

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To whiny Gore supporters: Yes, I voted for Nader and no, I don’t regret it. While you may be angry that Nader spoiled the election for Gore, I believe this is merely a transference of your anger. I think that you are instead angry at yourselves for supporting a candidate who couldn’t even beat a bumbling puppet-head from Texas.

If anyone should be angry, it would be Nader supporters, angry at Gore. His campaign’s fear tactics (the Supreme Court myth, to name one) ruined Nader’s chance at getting 5% of the total vote and ruined the country’s chance at having a real third-party option in 2004. Don’t blame us, Gore supporters, blame yourselves.

JOE ZEFRAN

Los Angeles

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Nader should expect to be guest of honor at two inaugurals: Bush’s in 2001 and Hillary Clinton’s in 2005.

JACK BLACKWELL

Santa Barbara

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Re “. . . And No Reason Not to Vote,” editorial, Nov. 7: It can never again be said of America that every vote does not count. And should not the study of this year’s election become mandatory in the curriculum of every grade school in our remarkable country?

NORMAN M. ROSENFELD

Los Angeles

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We’ve been snookered! Gore trumped other Democrats with his VP credentials and blocked any real selection process for the Democrats. Bush steamrollered the GOP opposition with the most flagrant excesses of corporate lobbyists and big private money ever seen. He thumbed his nose at many electoral financing rules and succeeded in selling a mediocre president’s son to 49% of the electorate.

Big oil and bigger business now own both top executive positions of the government with their emphasis on the corporate quarterly bottom line. The environment, a balanced tax structure, personal privacy, women’s right to choose, election finance reform and international balances of power are at risk. However, these are just two people against a system of checks and balances and the tide of history that will demand real solutions if our world is to survive to the next millennium.

GARY MOIR

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Kudos to The Times’ staff for its predictions regarding the presidential election. You correctly called 44 out of 44 states and the six you rated as tossups were the most hotly contested in the country. As the results played out, it became clear that, as you pointed out, the winner needed Florida plus one more state. However, I almost went to sleep early and almost missed the excitement when the networks made the erroneous call.

My next question: Who is going to win the Super Bowl?

MARTIN MELNICK

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Regardless of the final outcome of the presidential cliffhanger, both candidates surely provide our children with a truly inspiring role model: Anyone, no matter how lackluster, who is born into a privileged and well-connected political family can grow up to be president!

TED R. MARCUS

Torrance

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I enjoyed using the new electronic voting machine [in Riverside County]. Just like the Lotto. Unfortunately, no quick-pick option.

JOHN DAILEY

Palm Desert