As many Floridians were on Election Day, Jake Pierson is confused. A slight error notwithstanding, the margin of error on the voting machines Florida uses is .01 percent (remember, this statistic is under the best possible conditions). That comes to about +/- 600 ballots.

In other words, if the difference is less than 600, a recount isn’t an option; it’s a necessity. Coincidentally, it’s required by Florida law (even if the difference is “up to” .5 percent).

First issue: Who doesn’t want a statewide recount? Bush’s lawyers. In court hearings, Bush’s lawyers nixed the idea of a statewide recount proposed by the Democrats.

Next issue: Is the Democratic Supreme Court partial? I thought I wasn’t going to have to bring up the Republican Harris who illegally filed a deadline for vote counting. She was on Bush’s campaign committee for crying out loud! She tried to stop the recount when it was clear that Gore might possibly pick up a couple of votes!

Another issue: Military ballots. I’m sure that you don’t want Gore supporters to manufacture ballots for Gore, and I don’t want overseas ballots to be manufactured for Bush. I get a little suspicious when a ballot from “overseas” doesn’t have a postmark, but that’s just my honesty peeking through here.

Furthermore, if we can throw out and not recount thousands of ballots that the voting machines mangled, why are you complaining that about 1,500 (far fewer than “all”) of the military ballots were thrown out?

Next is unfounded accusations. You assert that Bush votes will be questioned, while Gore votes will be passed along. Well, that’s the very problem a recount is trying to solve! Plenty of Gore votes (and Bush votes) were not counted because the machines simply spat them out. How are we to rectify that without a recount?

Next — blaming voters for ballot errors? How did I know a Republican would suggest that? Yes, let’s have vision tests to qualify for voting. Literacy tests would help the problem too. Listen people, a few more suggestions like this, and we’ll whittle the eligible voting populace back down to the white, male, wealthy land-owning elite that we had a couple centuries ago.

Next, the alleged Bush line deserters were cheated? Please. How can you whine about them when there are thousands of uncounted votes from people who bothered to participate in the political process?

What’s next? I guess we’ll have to wait for Bush to shake the Magic Eight Ball for his next move.

Bush’s camp is changing their minds daily. At first, Bush’s lawyers argue that the issue does not belong in the courts. Then, when the courts call him for mischaracterizing the process, his team insists that the issue should go to the Supreme Court. Well, I’d expect this from the man who said he trusts the people, and decided later on that he trusts the dusty old ballot-reading machine.

Keith Twombley

Sophomore

Computer science and philosophy