NY Times: Liberal paper's editorial slams the Seminole and Martin lawsuits...

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December 6, 2000

The Sideshow Over Absentees

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At a time when the presidential contest seems to be grinding toward resolution by the Florida Supreme Court, the last thing the nation needs is a disruptive ruling from trial courts over the absentee ballots in Martin and Seminole counties. But the argument against throwing out a total of 25,000 votes in the two counties does not depend on the fact that discarding them would be politically disruptive. It would be a gross distortion of Florida election law and basic fairness to dismiss so many votes that were cast in good faith by Florida citizens on the grounds that county officials used bad judgment in letting party workers fill out some absentee application forms.

It was unfortunate that Vice President Al Gore equivocated yesterday when pressed as to how he would react if Judge Nikki Clark, in the Seminole County case, and Judge Terry Lewis, in Martin County's, disallowed the absentees, steps that could give him a net gain of 7,600 votes. Heretofore Mr. Gore has been right on principle, arguing that state election laws ought to be generously interpreted to permit the fullest possible count of all votes. He feels that such a count would not only represent a triumph for democracy, but have the additional benefit of winning him the presidency.

But the Democratic plaintiffs in Seminole and Martin are asserting a different principle based on a mistaken interpretation of election law. The plaintiffs argue that Republican county officials improperly allowed G.O.P. party workers to fill in missing voter identification numbers on some forms and denied the same opportunity to Democrats. But the only way to reject the votes cast by people whose application forms were altered in Seminole would be to reject all of the county's 15,000 absentee ballots, since there is no way to tell the two groups apart. This remedy is extreme and aimed at the wrong offenders. If the county officials who allowed the alterations broke the law, they can be punished. But it twists the law to invalidate the votes of thousands of absentees whose forms were properly filled out and whose ballots were correctly cast.

As we have said many times, the error-riddled Florida election can never be made perfect. Even so, to seize on technical violations to wipe out the absentee vote in two counties is a remedy far in excess of the error. The vice president acknowledged as much by originally opting not to join the lawsuits brought by local lawyers with strong ties to the Democratic Party. Now his refusal to forcefully call on his local supporters to drop the suit, or to rule out benefiting from its outcome, represents a failure of statesmanship on his part. We have supported his quest to overtake George W. Bush's lead by adding votes that were unfairly set aside in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. But Mr. Gore should not win by subtracting votes legitimately cast for his opponent.

For one thing, the Florida Supreme Court has already ruled that ballots must be in substantial non-compliance with election laws before being rejected. Clearly, the majority of these absentee votes were in substantial compliance. The state's highest court cannot allow thousands of voters who cast those ballots to be disfranchised. To do so would only give the Florida Legislature an additional excuse to disrupt the process of choosing electors.

The Florida Supreme Court should announce by Friday whether it is going to overrule Judge N. Sanders Sauls and order a recount in Miami-Dade County. Such a ruling would give Mr. Gore a legitimate chance at winning. But he should not be counting on or encouraging an aberrant, unfair ruling on absentee ballots from Seminole and Martin counties.

-- eve (eve_rebekah@yahoo.com), December 06, 2000

Answers

Give it up Al. Even the NYT is sick of your Philadelphia-lawyering. Show some class; lead your 49% of the voters to constuctive closure.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), December 06, 2000.

I wonder what the percentage of voters voting for Gore would be if the election were to be held today?

-- Dr. Pibb (dr.pibb@zdnetonebox.com), December 06, 2000.

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