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It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

The original title of this column had a "?" Who could guess when the US presidential election would be over?

But then the news broke. The Florida Supreme Court ordered an immediate manual count of the votes. Imagine that. After losing left and right in different courts, the Justices decided that Gore was right. It's not over until the votes are counted.

But, then GW had to appeal the decision. He didn't concede graciously or allow this country go forward. He didn't let the people of the US heal; all that touchy-feely stuff he'd been advising Gore to do for weeks.

Had the count of 40,000 votes continued I doubt it would have been difficult for Gore to come out ahead. That's why Republicans didn't want it to get this far. It's why GW instructed his lawyers to ask for a stay, a move usually reserved for those facing execution. Strange, the media has been trying for weeks to have us to believe Gore was losing sleep and that the order to count was his last gasp of air. But in reality, it looks like George W. Bush was the desperate one, someone who could not imagine life without the White House.

Predictably, the Republican-held Florida state legislature met on December 12 to give its electoral votes to Governor Jeb Bush's brother. Now I know what Brother Jeb meant when he assured GW back on Election Day that Florida would be for Bush. What we couldn't hear was the "by hook or by crook" that was probably also muttered.

Now the US Supreme Court has said there are constitutional problems with the Florida Court's decision to count all votes. It may finally be over. In essence, the Supreme Court has decided who the next president will be, and it has done so along political lines, much like everything else in the US.

Governor Bush may have won the appeal, but I don't think he's a winner, any more than Vice-President Gore is a loser.

By now you've probably figured out whose side I'm on. But you're only partially right.

True, I dread living under yet another Bush regime. I have done it once already and as a friend says, if you think Daddy Bush had trouble with "that vision thing", Boy George probably can't even spell vision. It's pretty obvious that with GW in the White House, Former President Bush will be serving the second term he lost 8 years ago.

I also want Gore in the White House because I lived in Texas for many years and frankly, these good 'ol boys just plain scare me to death.

Texas is the state where a man was dragged to his death a few years ago because he was black. It's where Papa Bush lives in a ritzy Houston neighborhood that they say looks splendid this time of year, decorated with Christmas lights. But, when I wanted to see for myself I was told by longtime residents I had the wrong color skin to be driving there. It's called racial profiling now-beat up Toyota, three Indians driving slowly looking at fancy houses-you get the picture?

Texas is where the INS rounded up Indian software engineers in a raid earlier this year, under GW's watch. Do you think President GW Bush won't turn a blind eye to such raids again? While Bush, Sr. may call his Hispanic grandchild brown-skinned affectionately, I doubt he and his kin have any place their hearts for people of color. And you can bet this is one family-value that GW has been taught real well.

The list goes on; Texas air-quality, maternal and child health care, mental health services, care for the elderly; in a word? Dismal.

So, yes, I was crossing my fingers and toes that the under votes would put Gore over the top in Florida. But, it's not just about Gore winning. It's about counting, accountability and the courts.

From everything I've heard and read about the state Supreme Court rulings, it appears Florida believes in counting every vote that can be counted. No matter which party one belongs to, I fail to see how this can be a bad thing. It is a moot point now. We may never know, but I believe a count would have shown Gore received more votes in Florida than Bush. I think Republicans knew this too.

This is, after all, the same party that once hired a few good men to break into the Democratic party's offices during a presidential election. So, forgive me if I find it a little difficult to believe that something odd wasn't going on when absentee ballots were corrected hush-hush in two Florida counties. Party officers knew it was illegal but went ahead anyway. In the end, Florida courts ruled that though they acted illegally, the officers' hearts were in the right place.

Convince me that these Republicans didn't look into their hearts until after they realized the importance of Florida's absentee ballots. With many coming from military personnel posted around the world, these traditionally Republican votes were essential for a Florida Bush victory. So far, however, there has been no mention of charging these party officers with the crime they committed. No one, it seems, will be held accountable for their illegal actions.

Now it seems the Republican party has tainted the US Supreme Court as well. The ruling handed down on December 12 was split along conservative/liberal lines. This shouldn't come as a surprise to most people. That's why this election was so critical. The next president may have the opportunity to appoint up to 3 new Supreme Court Justices. The ramifications for the people of the US may be enormous. If nothing else come out of this, maybe now Americans will realize just how important this aspect of Election 2000 was to our future.

I hope we've learned a lot more from this incredibly long election.

We now have proof that every vote does count. How often have we heard this and ignored it? Imagine what may have happened if 20% or 30% more people had voted. Our neighbors to the north are upset that less than 70% of registered voters showed up at the polls during their national elections recently. 70%! Do you think the US will ever see the numbers Canada has? The US media kept insisting we were in the midst of a national crisis, but half of us didn't even care enough to vote. How much of an ordeal was this really?

I also wonder about the minority vote. There were more registered minority voters this year than in any previous election. But how many of us actually voted? Did Indians who were eligible to vote come out in droves? How many of us who could, voted absentee before going to India for Diwali? Did we vote while we were there? Were the elections important enough for us to come back by November 7? Did Permanent Residents encourage their 18YO+ US-born kids to register and vote? I hope we learned that we have to get involved.

What about the women? Did we realize it's not just how well some guy kisses but the Supreme Court justices he will appoint that made this election more crucial than any in recent history? Did we comprehend that what happens when this is all over will affect our lives, our rights, for decades to come? Something tells me we didn't. We were too busy checking out Gore's wardrobe or going ga-ga over GW's down-home personality.

For those of us who did vote, we learned that voting in the US is a free-for-all. To each state its own. Discussing the election aftermath in India, I argued with my mother as she told relatives she voted by pulling a lever. What lever? In Houston, Atlanta and San Jose, I've punched holes. In other parts of the US, one blackens in an oval. There's no rhyme or reason for who gets to do what. For example, wealthy districts in states use antiquated voting machines while smaller, poorer precincts have the more accurate scanners.

I did know about chads, though. Anyone who reads ballot instructions has to know how important it is to make sure the hole is punched clean through. So, I go through and punch those darned holes three times. But, I can see how people, and not just in Florida, may have trouble punching the holes even once. It can be tricky picking up that tiny plastic stylus and aligning the ballot just so while trying to figure out the crazy numbering system.

It's almost too ridiculous to believe. Canada can manually count 13 million ballots in four hours. Illiterate voters around the world use symbols, and touch-screen voting already exists in other countries. But, the US punches, blackens and pulls or skips voting altogether. We don't deserve democracy.

We also learned about a spoiler-Saint Ralph Nader, whose followers keep voting for him just to make a point. Never mind that their green agenda will get nowhere with another Bush administration. I blame both Gore and Nader for not working together. What's so bad about forming alliances, learning to work together towards a common goal? The Republicans seemed to figure this out when McCain endorsed Bush. Granted there are flaws with a two-party-only system, but why must the rest of us, on both sides of the aisle, deal with the Green Party's fallout now?

Finally, I learned about the 12th Amendment of the US Constitution. It says that if both members of a presidential ticket are residents of the same state, that state's electoral votes go to the opposing ticket. If Dick Cheney had remained a Texas resident, Florida wouldn't matter. Texas has 32 electoral votes, Florida 25. You do the math.

So, while the courts in Florida did their thing, a ruling was handed down by a federal appeals court. It said Cheney was a resident of Wyoming, even though he registered as a voter there only 4 days before his candidacy was announced. Traditionally, courts have been lenient regarding residency for candidates. But, anyone who has paid out-of-state tuition fees knows how difficult it is for mere mortals to prove residency. In most states it's virtually impossible before the 1-year mark. For example, the great state of Texas refused my residency petition at least twice, even though I held a full-time job in Texas and was a registered voter who had actually voted in an election. It didn't matter. I was just a citizen, not a politician.

I suppose that's what steams and saddens me most about Election 2000. This election was supposed to be about us. We were supposed to elect a president who would represent we-the-people, someone who would work for all of us. But, whether it's Bush or Gore by the time it's over, the new president of the US will represent only half of the half who voted.

Maybe that means a coin-toss would have worked just as well. I don't think so. That would mean there's no difference between the two men, that we had no choice. In my opinion, we had a clear choice. One man campaigned for a country's, for our future, the other ran for office.

I'm sure GW's supporters will disagree, but time will tell. The political pundits are already predicting GW will be a lame-duck president for his entire term and the House and Senate will be at loggerheads.

God help us. It's going to be a long 4 years. And then we get to do this all over again.

Reeta Sinha