Cause for Compromise

There is some comfort in knowing that George W. Bush probably is not really an accidental president.

Not that his authority is being questioned in Washington. His claim to the office was peaceably affirmed when Democrat Al Gore conceded the Nov. 7 election. But now we have further evidence in the results of a survey of more than 60,000 Florida election ballots, conducted by the Miami Herald, its parent firm, Knight Ridder, and USA Today. The exhaustive study found that Bush’s margin in the contested Florida election would have risen from 537 votes to 1,665 if the state Supreme Court had allowed continuation of the recount under the rules in force at the time in each county.

There were, however, scenarios in which Gore might have carried Florida--by just three votes in one instance. In one case, ballots discarded by canvassing boards during hand recounts in Broward and Palm Beach counties would have tipped the election to Gore.

The survey strongly reinforced the underlying lesson of the 2000 election. There will always be the potential for human error in elections, but mistakes will only affect the outcome in the closest of counts. Another and wider-ranging examination of the ballots is continuing, one conducted by The Times and several other news organizations. But the Herald’s study is the second to generally confirm a Bush victory in Florida.

In future elections, the chance for error would be reduced by standardized election equipment and counting procedures. Such efforts are underway in Congress and many states, including Florida and California. Congress should not, however, pick a single make or type of voting machine and impose it on the entire nation. States should retain their constitutional authority to run the elections.

The different scenarios generated by the Miami Herald survey did not depend on the type of voting machine used. They varied depending on how the ballots were handled following the election. The study focused on “undervotes,” which registered no preference for president. It did not consider “overvotes,” ballots in which the voters appeared to make a mark for more than one candidate for president. The large numbers of overvotes seem to indicate the need for better-designed ballots and clearer instructions to voters on how to make their votes count. Some standardization of machines would help. But smarter ballots would make for smarter voters and more accurate election results.

Supporters of President Bush have welcomed the Miami report, and Democrats have unsurprisingly pointed out the ways in which Gore might have won. But perhaps the central point is not the legitimacy of Bush’s presidency--that was never in doubt once Gore threw in the towel--but a reminder that this presidency did not come with a mandate. Bush is facing some hard fights in an evenly divided Senate, and the spirit of compromise he promised at his inaugural should be in greater evidence.