Florida’s close votes are not a mistake
COMMENTARY
Patrick Jennings

I have a certain feeling in my gut. The feeling you get when you’re about to deliver a report in class and know that no matter how hard you prepared, something is about to go horribly wrong. I just sent in my Florida absentee ballot.

I’m a native Floridian, and I lived through the embarrassment of the last presidential election. All of my extended family lives in different states, but they all had to poke fun at the Florida clan. We can’t count. We’re easily confused. We stand in front of polling boxes and block the path of minority voters. If you think it was a national nightmare, try living in Florida at the end of 2000.

On Nov. 5, Floridians vote for governor. Jeb Bush, the incumbent and Dubya’s little brother, is ahead in the polls by an increasingly small margin. Bill McBride beat Janet Reno in a very close primary and has chopped Bush’s lead from double digits to a statistical dead heat. With a month left, Bill McBride has the time to make this even closer. If President Bush makes a move on Iraq that goes sour, Gov. Bush is unfortunately connected despite his efforts to stay silent on ousting Saddam.

I mentioned the close democratic primary between Reno and McBride. It was close enough that Reno demanded, you guessed it, a recount and claimed voters were turned away from the polls. The margin was large enough that she had to accept defeat within the week. I saw this happening and got that feeling.

To set the record straight, Gov. Bush did try to fix the problem. Almost 50 million dollars was spent to upgrade voting methods in poor districts to computerized ballots. Well, those touch-screens were still buggy and Gov. Bush got the blame. Also, I have serious doubts that there was a massive conspiracy on the part of the Bush brothers to keep poor, democratic-voting blacks from casting a ballot.

Likewise, there was no plan to confuse the elderly retirees of Palm Beach county. I remember the butterfly ballot, and it had been in use for decades. Bush made a conscious effort to right those perceived wrongs amidst legal battles and scorn from half of America.

I’d give 15-to-1 odds against there being a problem in this election, but those are closer odds than anywhere else in the country. So if it happens, what should my home state do to restore credibility? I’m sorry, I can’t think of anything.

The problem in Florida stems from an evenly divided electorate. North Florida is an extension of the solid south for Republicans, yet there are enough democrats in urban Orlando, Miami and Tampa to cancel them out.

In the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore won 16 counties. Bush won 51. No change in voting procedure can change the fact that every election held state wide is going to be close. My home county casts more than 200,000 votes for president, and got the same results on the first count and recount.

So for those of you who are eager to make fun of my state, or call it the home of voting irregularities, please don’t do it. Democracy works best with two equal sides battling each other for supremacy. Close elections aren’t a crisis of democracy, they’re a boon.

Patrick Jennings is a freshman economics major from Melbourne, Fla.