Gore Supporters Hysterical Over Bush Electoral Vote

Hysteria of Democrats over the ballot count at Palm Beach is alarming inasmuch as it caters to the passions our Founding Fathers tried hard to curb with a Constitution of checks and balances.

As this is written, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lead Al Gore and Joe Liberman in Florida by just 327 re-counted votes. This awards Bush a majority of the nation’s electoral votes.

There are 3,000 ballots outstanding from Florida citizens – mostly military – living abroad. Deadline for acceptance is Nov. 17. In the 1996 election, the Florida overseas vote favored Republicans by 54 percent.

These realities have loosed tirades of Democrat attacks. Rev. Jesse Jackson rushed to Palm Beach to whip African- Americans and Latino immigrants into frenzy.

Florida Congressman Robert Wexler came unglued. He accuses Palm Beach election officials of “irregularities, incompetence and deception.”

William Daley, Gore’s campaign manager, announced he would file legal suits to overturn the election and sue for a second vote -- just as soon as he can find a friendly judge.

The Clinton-Gore tactics of attack, delay and obfuscation are to be unleashed one more time. If you can’t win, destroy your opponent’s ability to function.

The Daley-Wexler-Jackson charge is that 9,000 Palm Beach ballots – “certainly belonging to Gore” – were spoiled because of a confusing lineup of Gore and Buchanan punch holes.

No matter that the vast majority of other voters punched the right holes, that the ballot card had been approved by Democrat officials prior to printing, that a sample ballot with instructions was sent to every registered voter, and that precinct workers stood ready as usual to replace botched ballots.

Citizens have an obligation to inform themselves about the mechanics of voting before stepping into the booths.

The Democratic Party assiduously rounds up poorly informed members and herds them to the polls. Party organizers have an obligation to teach their wards the procedure of casting a vote once they are cajoled. Ignorance and carelessness are not valid excuses for a second chance.

Threats of legal harassment are a dangerous ruse for Gore. His leads in New Mexico, Oregon, Iowa and Wisconsin are thin. His methods of rounding up election-day voters are suspicious.

In Missouri, incumbent Senator John Ashcroft was defeated by the widow of Gov. Mel Carnahan also running for the Senate. The governor was killed in a plane crash three weeks before the election.

In deference to the deceased and his widow, Sen. Ashcroft stopped campaigning. Unfortunately for him, Mrs. Carnahan did not have the same compunctions. She announced she would “accept” appointment to the Senate in place of her late husband, and so Republicans lost a seat.

The Constitution says candidates must be an “inhabitant” of the district he/she wants to represent. Obviously the late Carnahan does not inhabit any place. Ashcroft goes into the history books as the only national candidate to be defeated by a dead man. This, too, should be adjudicated.

As we look back to the 1960 race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Nixon seems naïve. He lost the popular vote by less than one-tenth of one percent in an election marred by massive fraud in Chicago engineered by Mayor Richard “Boss” Daley, William’s father.

Nevertheless, Nixon accepted the vote and waived a recount in order to spare the nation months of litigation. Two months after Kennedy took office, Chicago election officials were found guilty of ballot stuffing.

Gore owes the nation Nixonian grace.

The United States is not – yet -- a democracy of direct, popular vote. However, we are sliding dangerously close to the type of government that worried those wise men who drafted our Constitution.

No, we pledge allegiance to the “Republic” which relies on “representation” of citizens by elected surrogates.

Democracies collapse when the poor and uneducated populace discover they can -- by one-person-one-vote -- overpower doers and confiscate their belongings. We are on our way.

Democrats have long campaigned against the Electoral College that actually elects a president on Dec. 18 after the general citizenry has elected electors. The purpose of the Electoral Collage is to hinder zealots from taking control of the country through momentary passions or propaganda.

Another safeguard -- election of senators by state legislatures -- was amended out of the Constitution in 1913 to permit election by popular vote. Gone is the check against a popularly elected House of Representatives which alone has the power to appropriate money.

Without the Electoral College, the nation’s 10 largest cities would control government.

Regardless of the final outcome of this election, the new president will have to deal with a gridlock Congress.

Bush has demonstrated a willingness and skill that bring people together.

Gore has demonstrated a tendency to attack and bully that divides people.

Either we get the kind of government we deserve, or deserve what we get.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun-Herald columnist

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Williams – election00

Sunday --Nov. 12, 2000

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