Hand Count of Ballots in Florida

* Why is no one acknowledging the elephant in the room? Why is no one asking why the Republicans and Democrats are waging an all-out legal battle over hand counting ballots, something that has traditionally been accepted by both parties as the most accurate way to tabulate ballots?

It is apparent that both parties know there are a lot of unaccounted-for Al Gore votes at large. Why is no one asking why they are at large and what the implications might be of enough Gore votes to win the election seeing the light of day for the first time through a hand count?

LINDSEY HASKIN

La Mesa

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Florida law says in a close election a manual recount can be requested to improve accuracy. At the county level manual recounts are intended for close elections within the county. With the close state election, Gore should have requested the state election officials to manually recount all Florida counties, with common chad-inspection criteria. Gore passed up this fair opportunity and instead has attempted to manipulate the final vote count by manually recounting in only four heavily Democratic counties. Gore’s attempt to unfairly change an election has hurt his credibility.

RICHARD SLYKER

Ventura

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The early projection of Gore’s victory in Florida on Nov. 7 was based on exit poll interviews. Those who voted and were interviewed at the exit polls did not realize that there are such things as “hanging chads” or “half-impregnations” that may not have been counted in the tabulation. If you count all those “intents” of the people, Gore probably is the winner.

CHARLIE SIE

Rancho Palos Verdes

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We are appalled and heartsick at the way Gore has turned this election into a street fight and demeaned the electoral process. How degrading to the office of the presidency to abandon all sense of honor and dignity in his attempt to grab power at any cost! What humiliation for other nations to observe this unseemly and aggressive display of legal manipulation. Gore should realize how much damage he has already done and, rather than attempt to bully his way into the Oval Office, show some class and bow out.

VIRGINIA T. MACAULAY

La Habra Heights

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I am sick and tired of the wrangling and accusations from both the Gore and Bush camps--all in the name of fairness, justice and for the sake of the country and the American people. The bottom line is that there’s a big possibility that the Democrats could win if there’s a hand count. Obviously, both parties know this. So, they will do anything and everything to either have or not have a hand count. This case will most likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, folks, just sit tight and enjoy the circus.

EDGARDO TRILLO

South Gate

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It is the bottom of the ninth inning. The home team has the bases loaded and nobody out. The visitors lead by 1-0. A sudden shower comes up and the umpires halt the play while the groundskeepers cover the diamond. After a short wait, the visitors begin shouting, “We won. We won. The game is over and we won!” They begin getting ready for the World Series.

Substitute “Republicans” for “visitors” and you have the last election. Sorry guys, the game isn’t over.

BOB BUELOW

Anaheim

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Napoleon once said that a great political leader is one who can be petty to get to the top and be great once he gets there. Observing the recent election fiasco, both candidates obviously meet the first requirement. Let’s hope whoever gets to the top has the second quality.

HAMID BAHADORI

Mission Viejo

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Dimpled or indented! Shame on you, Al Gore.

JEFF SHIREY

Woodland Hills

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Why is speed more important than accuracy to the Bush campaign?

EVELYN JEROME

Santa Monica

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I applaud our nation for the diligence and care taken with the ballots from the presidential election. Despite the fact that I am a registered Democrat, I am appalled at the way a manual recount of the votes could potentially go. The idea that people would be holding ballots up to the light and making decisions based on things as minor as indents is absurd. An indent could mean, “Oops, I almost voted for him,” rather than what many officials are assuming (that indents indicate votes that should have gone to Gore).

This is as plain as day. Tallying the ballots mechanically is both normative and accurate. It would be a horrible thing to have demonstrated (as we did this past week) how highly we prize our democracy, only to ruin our efforts through the use of dangerously subjective counting methods.

MARK PERTUIT

Yorba Linda

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Douglas Kmiec (Commentary, Nov. 17) cited Florida law regarding the reading of ballots, quoted as, “If it is impossible to determine the elector’s choice, the elector’s ballot shall not be counted for that office.” The law does not say that the vote is to be discarded if it is “difficult” to determine the elector’s choice. The vote-counting machines have a known error rate and in cases where the vote count differential is within the known error rate, a hand recount should be mandatory, not optional. A human eye can read things that a computer can’t, and a hand count should be accepted as more accurate than a machine count.

This does not mean that the double-punched ballots should be interpreted as to their intent--in that case it is impossible to determine the voter’s intent, and the legality of those ballots will have to be settled in court as a separate issue.

A vote count will never be 100% accurate, but it behooves us to know when we should and should not trust our technology. I suggest that our legislators put together some federal laws to standardize the process so we can reduce the partisan bickering that annoys and entertains us all so immensely.

CRAIG ARNOLD

Long Beach

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I fail to see the accuracy of a hand count that can be tampered with. We need to either let the recount stand or do the election over again. I am opposed to continuing a hand recount unless the ballot was designed for hand counting. Hand counting a machine-count-designed ballot does not seem accurate.

MAX WILBANKS

Pasadena

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It has been claimed by many that our vote is sacred. But if it were actually sacred, it would be collected and counted with precision. In this age of bar codes, microsensors, card swipers, touch screens and other technology, you would think we could put an end to the shenanigans and incompetence of past elections. Now we have a situation where every time the vote is counted, it’s going to return a different number.

The only time I use a punch card and stylus is for voting, once every year or two, and that after I walk in off the street and claim to be who I am. It’s so quaint. I never thought to pull off the chads, but I do watch ballots thrown in a plastic box with a slot. With millions of paper ballots thrown into a box, simple probability will predict that many will be damaged. Now is the time to call for a standardized balloting method; one that verifies eligibility, confirms the voters’ choices and is entered permanently into a databank. We can do this.

RAYMOND RODRIGUEZ

Redondo Beach

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Amid the political turmoil that swirls around us, the voice of integrity strains to be heard: Let dedication to principle supersede loyalty to party.

RABBI MELVIN L. GOLDSTINE

Woodland Hills