i really feel sorry for florida...
 

Posted by Jay.

Student on team #173, RAGE, from RHS and UTRC.

Posted on 11/9/2000 4:33 PM MST


In Reply to: This board is quiet-- so how bout this election?!?!? posted by colleen on 11/8/2000 1:53 PM MST:



'Rabbi Richard Yellin said that when it dawned on several of his congregants that they might have unwittingly voted for Buchanan, 'people started crying.' Buchanan's remarks about World War II and the Middle East have been criticized by many Jews as anti-Semitic.'... we're talking over 19,000 votes that have been disqualified... meaning gore won in reality, but who knows now. that must really feel awful, to know that your mistake has effected the entire country. basically i think after all this, bush will be the winner, legally. but isn't the law supposed to be an expression of the will of the people...?

p.s. florida used the same system in '96. they had aprox. 15,000 mistakes... add in a big voter increase and bingo: you have a disaster that's just been waiting to happen for the past 4 years.

p.p.s. buchanan was just on tv, he said the ballot was confusing and he doesn't feel right about taking gore's votes...

Re: i really feel sorry for florida...
 

Posted by Jessica Boucher.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bots, from Watertown High School and Eastern Awning Systems & The Siemon Company.

Posted on 11/10/2000 9:27 AM MST


In Reply to: i really feel sorry for florida... posted by Jay on 11/9/2000 4:33 PM MST:



I agree, I feel really bad for FL too....and it's kinda funny, that the only state that is having problems is the one who W's brother is governor of.
By the way, if you have the chance, don't chew out your local Floridian friend about this all....luckily he took it the right way, but I can see where there can be some confustion.

: p.s. florida used the same system in '96. they had aprox. 15,000 mistakes... add in a big voter increase and bingo: you have a disaster that's just been waiting to happen for the past 4 years.

Well, thats because FL has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country...more of the less populated counties feel that whoever the president is does not affect them at all...and would rather spend their energy pushing their favorite local candidate, because the local candidate will help them more than the president.
(That was all from a NY Times article a month back)
Anyway, due to lower turnout, they don't feel that they need to spend the money on fancy mechanized booths like the ones where I am.

: p.p.s. buchanan was just on tv, he said the ballot was confusing and he doesn't feel right about taking gore's votes...
Poor Buchanan...at least he's being civil about this...I think the quote that has aggravated me the most throughout all of this was the one made by one of Bush's lawyers who answered 'Well, it's not like the US is like other countries that revotes and manipulates the data until they get the results they want'...grrrr.

Done venting for today,
-Jess Boucher #237

Re: i really feel sorry for florida...
 

Posted by Jason Rudolph.

Other on team #459, , from University of Florida/Eastside High School and .

Posted on 11/10/2000 2:05 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: i really feel sorry for florida... posted by Jessica Boucher on 11/10/2000 9:27 AM MST:



I don't know if anyone else saw it last night, but Michael Moore was on the daily show, and he made a very funny comment (well, at least I think so). He said we should call the Secretary General of the UN, Koffi Annon, and have him send election supervisors to the US to make sure everything goes right. Now, it seems funny, but if you think about it, that is EXACTLY what we do all the time to other countries, so why can't it happen to us??? In fact, I do believe that Fidel Castro has already said that he would send advisors to overlook a revote......

Jason

Solving this mess
 

Posted by colleen.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.

Posted on 11/10/2000 11:44 AM MST


In Reply to: i really feel sorry for florida... posted by Jay on 11/9/2000 4:33 PM MST:



I respect Buchanan for his comments-- it's obvious they can't assume that ALL those people were trying to vote for Gore, but even when the candidate himself says he shouldn't have that many votes, there's a major issue to be solved..

Low voter turnout (from Jess' post) unfortunately should not mean that the people who do vote shouldn't be counted... i mean 19,000 people went to the polls and are not being counted... yes, some ballots were double marked-- no, those SHOULD NOT be counted.. but many votes were thrown out because people (most often older) circled their choice rather than punched a hole.. since Florida could not count those by machine, they did not count them at all..

If only certain people's votes are going to matter, we have issues. People double-voting on a ballot is inexcusable.. but 19,000 people weren't that stupid.. and the 1000's of people who tried voting for Gore but the hole's didn't line up desire to recast their vote as well.. Yeah, everyone wants to end this.. but people's say in their government should not be compromised because the higher-ups don't feel like spending the time and money--

I would say the only fair way to solve Florida would be allow those people who voted in the first election (names are checked and kept-- or should be) to recast their votes.. if they change them, that's their choice.. but really.. and when those votes come in (or even the ones now) they should be counted BY HAND. Sending a beam of light through a punched hole is not very efficient.. and has been disgarded by many other states (including mine of massachusetts) because of it's inefficiency in reading clearly punched ballots..

And before the next election-- a UNIVERSAL method of voting has to be made and adopted by every county in every state of this nation.. if we are all using the same machines and processes, at least the margin of error is the same all around and no one would be at an advantage or disadvantage...

One revote -- 250 million revote...
 

Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 11/10/2000 12:20 PM MST


In Reply to: Solving this mess posted by colleen on 11/10/2000 11:44 AM MST:



Clearly we cannot turn back time in order to make all those who, by some measures, deserve to revote forget the past few days so that they would vote the way they would have voted on Nov. 7th.

The fact that they already know the outcome of most of the country and the closeness of the tallies would clearly have an unfair impact on voting patterns.

I am not in favor of any revote.

BUT... If ANYONE gets to revote, the entire country should revote. IMHO.

Joe J.