Why Gore Lost

Too many lawyers trying to be too clever. It was a state-wide election, requiring a state-wide recount with a state-wide standard for what consituted a legal vote for each type of voting machne. The posted instructions for each type of machine would have made the most sense, the intent of the voter being indicated by a ballot that followed those instructions.

Suspecting that Bush would win such a recount, the Gore team's strategy was to cherry pick heavily Democrat counties, which they had already won by large margins, using partisan canvasing boards willing to count dimples and scratches (Broward, well into its count, started over and changed its long-standing practice of not counting dimples when not enough Gore votes were being produced). This is vote-dredging, not recounting. They got the partisan Florida Supreme Court to extend the statuatory deadlines, so there would be time to accomplish that. But such targeted "recounts" made no sense in terms of basic fairness (equal protection), and the U.S. Supreme Court hung them on that basis. By that time the clock had run out, and no time remained to go back and do it right.

Oops.

Byron