Reply #10: Democracy’s unbound when the media fails [View All]

Regarding an article published in the New York Times:
12/25 - Recounts and Partisan Bickering Tire Washington Voters
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/national/26gov.html

December 26, 2004

Democracy’s unbound when the media fails

...That’s it for their evidence of what ‘Washington voters from other countries’ thought: the cabdriver. One voter becomes many. Did they add that while returning to the office in the cab, to file the story?

-snip-
The bottom line is the process has been long and tiresome. The reporters didn’t even delve into the major glitches that were suspicious, like found batches of ballots. They only cited ballots challenged for what seems - on the surface - to be standard reasons for ballots to be challenged. They also neglected to mention that the recounting process has actually increased the accuracy of the counting process and that it has done so because there was a verifiable paper trail that permitted a more accurate count.

The doubt and skepticism of voters is a perfectly reasonable outcome, and it’s understandable that the delay in ascertaining who won is tiring to folks who yearn for finality. But the reality at this point is that there’s only two ways for that to occur. Any remaining ballots that were challenged and left uncounted will gain the review of judges who must determine if the challenges and decisions were done in accordance with election law, and if not, more will get counted.

-snip-
As the model of near perfection it should have been employed in Florida in 2000: a hand recount and one or two layers of judicial review. Unfortunately, multiple errors occurred in Florida. Those errors were preceded by layers of deceit and partisanship, by the disenfranchisement of voters (making it impossible to determine their votes ), and by election officials refusing to count due to direct intimidation. The only way forward for a just court then would have called for a fresh election for that state.


Link:
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2004/12/26/democracys-unbound-when-the-media-fails/