Karl Fogel at
First, those kinds of comments are an on-field assist to everyone who is trying to undermine confidence in valid election results. Which, in case you hadn't noticed, is a lot of people who have anti-democratic motivations.
Second, what's going on in Florida now is quite different from what happened in 2000. There are very different procedures in place & being followed now, and their whole purpose is to ensure an accurate count that people have confidence in.
Third, it does a huge disservice to the public when you reinforce the idea that having a final count within hours of the polls closing is a normal and reasonable thing. Collecting, tallying, and auditing votes takes time. Therefore, help the public understand that the current slow-and-careful approach *is* the normal and reasonable thing, and that those calling for fast results are the ones acting suspiciously.
With respect, @petersagal, this was meant for you (but not only you, of course). The steady drip of snarky comments and in-passing jokes about Florida elections that I'm hearing on @NPR lately is not only unjustified, it's damaging our notion of how democracy works.
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Mom and I are temporarily retired out as poll judges. We've been horrified to see the losing side in the gubernatorial race in Georgia try to just re-write all the rules via lawsuits after the election happened. If the rules in Georgia are horrible and unconstitutional there then Ohio's stricter rules would be a nightmare except that our elections seem to occur like clockwork without discrepancies.
As to Florida? It is a pity they can't both lose and leave the seat vacant until the next possible special election period (probably in May) to try again from scratch. Between the Broward County oddities compounded by that other county in the panhandle that illegally accepted faxed and e-mail ballots, I'm questioning what results could be considered valid.