Letters

Attack on Bush’s victory unjust Robert
Watson’s tirade against President-elect George W. Bush and
the American electoral system (“Inauguration
spells doom for democratic principles,” Viewpoint, Jan.
8) proved to be not only inaccurate but infuriating as well. One of
the greatest offenses is Watson’s claim that Gore
“won” the votes. This is not true. We elect the
president in this country by the electoral college, not the popular
vote, so as to give a counterbalance to a few heavily populated
states. As for Florida, the extrapolation of 20,000 votes is based
on a complete misunderstanding of statistics, since a few heavily
Democratic precincts do not represent all of the precincts. The
“mob tactics” referred to were no such thing, nor were
they organized by sneaky GOP political bosses. The people in the
county were trying to stop the canvassing board from illegally
counting the votes in secret. With another county’s board
openly creating votes for Al Gore where there was none from
“dimpled chads,” is there any surprise that people
feared that votes might be created for Al Gore in a more permanent
way on the ballots in secret? Most shocking is the attack on the
Supreme Court. The main ruling was based on precedents made from
Civil Rights trials of the past 50 years. More strongly, the
concurring opinion stated the legitimacy of the Supreme Court
halting the recount succinctly. The Florida Supreme Court violated
the Constitution and Federal Law by wantonly rewriting the law
after the election, even to the point of rewriting their previous
rulings. If there is any condemnation of a Supreme Court, it should
be toward the Florida Supreme Court. Bush won. It was close, but he
won.

Daniel B. Rego Graduate, Class of 2000