Political Drama: Count the Votes

* George W. Bush and Al Gore playing their hands in this epic Battle of Florida is a model showdown of Machiavellian politics. They and their point men, James Baker and Warren Christopher, are waging a political endgame that will go down in electoral history as a classic. I am on the edge of my seat every day, relishing the great newspaper and television coverage of the war of rhetoric and legal maneuvering. All the political pundits and armchair political quarterbacks are in seventh heaven watching this dog fight. I haven’t had this much fun following a political drama since Watergate, as this election has come down the stretch and ended in a photo finish.

CHARLES E. MULLALY

South Pasadena

*

Whoever is finally elected president, it will be like having a substitute teacher. Only now, I hope we act like grown-ups and that we avoid the let’s-all-drop-our-pencils-at-10 mentality. It’s to our individual and collective benefit to make the system work, not to undermine it. We all get a chance to change things in another four years.

PAULA TAYLOR

San Diego

*

The election does not belong to either of the candidates. It belongs to the 49 million citizens who voted for each of them. Therefore, neither has the right to concede until all legal steps have been taken to ensure that the nod goes to the real winner.

GEORGE M. SICULAR

San Jose

*

Despite the wailing of the Bush campaign about the nation being in a crisis, who says so, other than the Bush supporters? If Gore was ahead by 367 votes in Florida, would Bush think that he (Bush) should concede? Oh, sure. I am ashamed that Baker would have the temerity to threaten to delay the results and call for recounts in many other states. The Republicans are trying to steal the election in any way they can.

DOROTHY MELVILLE

San Juan Capistrano

*

Gore should concede. He has lost twice already. The hard fact is, for the good of all, each registered voter gets only one vote. If you make a mistake and then leave the ballot booth, there can be no remedy.

BARRY COLMAN

Saugus

*

In his Nov. 12 commentary, Douglas Kmiec implored Gore to “try to remember the will of the people.” What a hoot. Here’s something to assist Kmiec in trying to remember the will of the people (as of this Sunday afternoon): Gore 49,260,111 votes; Bush 49,043,820 votes.

BARRY BERKELEY

Los Angeles

*

Wouldn’t it be great if both Bush and Gore conceded?

BRUCE SEARS

Altadena

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Any two-bit banana republic can bestow upon its citizens the “right to vote.” But it is ensuring that those votes are accurately counted and that the will of the electorate be instituted that make a true democracy.

JAMES REILLY

Redondo Beach

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When the election results are as close as they are, I cannot understand how someone can argue for expediency over accuracy. Florida officials must take their time to get the count accurate. If that takes two days or two weeks then so be it. For Baker to argue that the machine count is more reliable than a human count defies logic. The machine count has already shown it is fallible. There was over a 1,400-vote change from the first count versus the recount. Additionally, in our society we oftentimes manually check machine-generated calculations. Do we or don’t we count our money received from the ATM?

HOWARD AVERY

Los Angeles

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I am amazed at Erwin Chemerinsky (Commentary, Nov. 12) suggesting that Palm Beach County should revote. You cannot recreate a day in time. People there have had many days to rationalize what they should have done, not what they did. The revote would never come close to the vote on Nov. 7. What’s done is done. Count them and let the chips fall where they may. Learn from this mess, and it is not all in vain.

NANCI FARRINGTON

San Bernardino

*

The manual recount, by eliminating ambiguous readings, serves to increase the total number of votes. The reason this is unfair is that it is only being done in precincts where Gore is stronger than Bush. So to be absolutely fair, a parallel manual recount should be done in a matching number of precincts where Bush was stronger than Gore.

BILL KONERSMAN

Pasadena

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Perhaps Florida state law should specifically mandate that elections need only reflect the will of those people who know how to follow ballot directions.

ROBERT J. BENNETT

Cypress

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Anyone who calls 22,000 Americans who were likely cheated out of the electoral process stupid is, well, stupid.

ED SILVERSTEIN

Santa Monica

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On Nov. 6, I voted in Lancaster at one of the new touch-screen voting sites available at nine locations in L.A. County. These were open Monday through Friday until 4:30 p.m. and the Saturday and Sunday before the election date. It was as simple as an ATM machine, clear as a full-screen computer page. I could review any page I had voted on, and any votes I made were changeable right up to moment I pressed the final vote button.

This is the way to go in the future. A Web site could show people how it works, at any time of year, so that when you go to vote you are already familiar with the system. For people who prefer the old paperwork system, some booths can still be available.

What are we waiting for--get those touch screens down to Florida now!

WINIFRED MEISER

Quartz Hill

*

Having been a member of a precinct board in Los Angeles County for over 30 years, I am amazed at the number of absentee voters in our precinct on Nov. 7. Absentee ballots are justified for those physically unable to get to their polling place, for those who know they will be out of town and for those who have a language problem. However, many vote absentee merely because it is a convenience. In our precinct alone, 26% of the voters elected to vote by absentee ballot.

The signature on each absentee ballot must be checked against the signature on the voter’s registration card. This takes additional time and labor and is an expensive process, costing far more than if a voter took the time to go to the polls to vote by traditional means.

If you are a person who complains about taxes, think about it next time you request an absentee ballot.

JOAN GRAHAM

Tujunga

*

Our electoral system is broken and needs fixing. Considering the Gore votes and the millions of Ralph Nader votes, it is obvious that the majority of Americans support a relatively liberal political position on issues. Yet Bush may be the winner. We need to modernize our methods of voting to ensure that those who are elected have a real majority behind them.

This is easily accomplished by using preferential systems of voting, such as ranking as many choices as one wishes in order of preference. This system has been used effectively by many organizations for many years. Every vote counts, if not for one’s first choice then for one’s second or successive preference. If such a system were in place, we would have had a clear winner, in this case Gore.

This is the year 2000. Aside from the obvious inequities of the electoral college, isn’t it time to consider changing our voting system?

DAVID SHAPIRO

Marina del Rey