1) Myth: Al Gore has a responsibility to concede the election.

Fact: A few hundred vote margin out of 6 million votes cast in Florida is
incredibly close! It is roughly equivalent to a 1-vote margin in
a city with 40,000 people and 18,000 voters.

It is extremely rare for an election this close NOT to be
contested for several weeks until a manual recount can take place,
with observers from both sides taking part and inspecting ballots.
This kind of detailed recount has not yet taken place.

According to the US Constitution and the Laws of Florida, it is
the responsibility of officials in Florida to certify the election
results. November 17 is the deadline for absentee ballots sent
from overseas to arrive. Since the election is close enough in
Florida, Oregon, and New Mexico to be affected by absentee ballots,
the results in those states cannot be certified before that date.

2) Myth: the number of "spoiled ballots" in Palm Beach County was
typical. In a press briefing televised live on all networks
on 11/9/00, Karl Rove of the Bush campaign compared the 14,872
invalidated ballots in the 1996 Presidential race to 19,120
ballots for President that were spoiled in this election.

Fact: Rove was comparing apples and oranges.
There were actually 29,702 invalidated ballots this year in
Palm Beach County. This is almost twice the number in 1996.
"19,120" refers to only those 2000 ballots which were thrown
out for voting for two Presidential candidates. The remaining
10,582 ballots had no choice recorded for President

According to the Palm Beach County elections office
(www.pbcelections.org), voters this year were not confused at all
by the rest of the ballot. For example, less than 1% of U.S.
Senate votes were invalidated because of multiple punches,
compared with over 4% in the Presidential contest.

3) Myth: The Palm beach ballot is definitely illegal due to the
presence of punch holes to the left of some of the candidates.

Fact: According to the Secretary of State's office, there is a
loophole in Florida law that may allow ballots used for voting
machines to deviate from the rules governing paper ballots. This
view has been contested by hundreds of Florida voters. The final
decision on the legality of the ballot is likely to be made in
court, as long as this issue could have an effect on the election.

It is possible that the ballot could be ruled illegal on other
grounds, such as the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and
Handicapped Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act.

4) Myth: "The more often ballots are recounted, especially by hand,
the more likely it is that human errors, like lost ballots and
other risks, will be introduced. This frustrates the very reason
why we have moved from hand counting to machine counting." --
Former Sec. of State James Baker, speaking on behalf of the Bush
campaign at a press briefing televised by all networks on 11/10/00.

Fact: In 1997, George W. Bush signed into law a bill stating that
hand recounts were the preferred method in a close election in
Texas. The bill, "HB 330", mandated that representatives of all
parties be present to prevent fraud.

Laws establishing rights and procedures for hand recounts also
exist in Florida (see Title IX, Chapter 102). In fact, the Orlando
Sentinel, (orlandosentinel.com) reported that a partial hand count
of Presidential ballots this year was ordered by Republicans in
Seminole County, where Bush led Gore. This count took place
on 11/9 and 11/10, widening Bush's lead by 98 votes. The Bush
campaign did not complain about this hand count; nor did it complain
about the hand count on 11/11/00 which put Bush slightly ahead of
Gore in New Mexico.

There do exist machine voting systems which are fairly accurate,
but antiquated punch card systems are notoriously inaccurate. They
were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1997 by Secretary of State William
Galvin after a Congressional primary that was also "too close to
call." The problem is that if the punched-out pieces of cardboard
are not completely removed from the punch card, they can obstruct
the card reader and the votes will not be counted. A manual
recount of such cards can clearly reveal the voter's intentions.

5) Myth: The process is unfair because hand recounts were held only
in liberal areas of Florida, where Gore stands to pick up the
most votes.

Fact: It is true that a statewide recount would be more fair, and
the Bush campaign has every right to request one. According
to Florida law, hand recount requests must come from the campaigns,
not from the state. To fail to request what is commonly referred
to as a "defensive recount" in conservative areas of Florida, they
may be making a tactical blunder that will cost them the election.
It is also true that there were voting irregularities in the
counties where the Gore campaign requested recounts.

6) Myth: "Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why
Pat Buchanan received 3407 votes there. According to the Florida
Department of State, 16,695 voters in Palm Beach County are registered
to the Independent Party, the Reform Party, or the American Reform
Party, an increase of 110% since the 1996 presidential election" -- Ari
Fleischer of the Bush Campaign, 11/9/00. The 2,000 votes received
by the Reform party candidate for Congress indicate that party's
strength in Palm Beach County (James Baker on Meet the Press,
11/12/00).

Fact: Of those 16,695 voters, only 337 (2 percent) are in the
Reform Party according to Florida state records. The Reform
party candidate for Congress, John McGuire, is connected to a
more centrist wing of the Reform Party, predating Buchanan's
involvement. An analysis of his support indicates that it came
largely from reform-minded Ralph Nader voters.

Regarding Buchanan's vote total, the Washington Post reported that
his vote percentage in Palm Beach county was four times as high at
the polls as in absentee voting. Even Buchanan himself admitted on
11/8/00 on the Today Show that many of his votes actually "belonged
to Al Gore." So did his campaign manager, Bay Buchanan.

7) Myth: If Gore (or Bush) ends up winning the popular vote, he really
should win the election even if he loses Florida and other states.

Fact: This is not the way the U.S. Constitution is written. The
Electoral College decision, imperfect as it may be, is the only one
that matters. It may be possible to reform or eliminate the electoral
college in the future, so that small states would no longer receive
extra electoral votes out of proportion to their population. But
until this change is made by Constitutional amendment, the Electoral
College is still the law of the land.

8) Myth: The Cook County, Illinois ballot from the home district
of Gore campaign chair Richard Daley is similar to the "butterfly"
ballot used in Palm Beach County (reported by Don Evans, 11/8/00)

Fact: According to the Chicago Daily Herald on 11/10/00, the
ballots in Chicago which had "facing pages" were referendum
questions which only had two punch holes, Yes and No.

9) Myth: The election process in Florida outside of Palm Beach County was fair.

Fact: Actually, thousands of irregularities in over a half-dozen
categories have already been reported:

-Ballots ran out in certain precincts according to the LA Times on 11/10/00.

-Carpools of African-American voters were stopped by police,
according to the Los Angeles Times (11/10/00). In some cases,
officers demanded to see a "taxi license".

-Polls closed with people still in line in Tampa, according to the Associated Press.

-In Osceola County, ballots did not line up properly, possibly
causing Gore voters to have their ballots cast for Harry Browne.
Also, Hispanic voters were required to produce two forms of ID when
only one is required. (source: Associated Press)

-Dozens, and possibly hundreds, of voters in Broward County were
unable to vote because the Supervisor of Elections did not have
enough staff to verify changes of address.

-Voters were mistakenly removed from voter rolls because their names
were similar to those of ex-cons, according to Mother Jones magazine.

-According to Reuters news service (11/8/00), many voters received
pencils rather than pens when they voted, in violation of state law.

-According to the Miami Herald, many Haitian-American voters were
turned away from precincts where they were voting for the first time (11/10/00)

-According to Feed Magazine (www.feedmag.com), the mayoral candidate
whose election in Miami was overturned due to voter fraud, Xavier
Suarez, said he was involved in preparing absentee ballots for George W. Bush. (11/9/00)

-According to tompaine.com, CBS's Dan Rather reported a possible computer error
in Volusia County, Florida, where James Harris, a Socialist Workers Party candidate,
won 9,888 votes. He won 583 in the rest of the state. [11/9/00] County-level
results for Florida are available at cnn.com.

-Many African-American first-time voters who registered at motor
vehicles offices or in campus voter registration drives did not
appear on the voting rolls, according to a hearing conducted by
the NAACP and televised on C-SPAN on 11/12/00.

10) Myth: "No evidence of vote fraud, either in the original
vote or in the recount, has been presented." -- James Baker,
representing the Bush campaign on 11/10/00, in a Florida briefing.

Fact: The election was held just last week, so of course many
instances of fraud have not yet been substantiated. Even so,
authorities have already uncovered clear evidence of voter fraud
involving absentee ballots.

In Pensacola, Florida, Bush supporter Todd Vinson never received the
absentee ballot he requested. According to the Associated Press on
11/9/00, it was determined after an investigation that this ballot
was received by a third party, filled out with a forged signature,
and then sent in. Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar, when asked
if other absentee ballots might had been intercepted, said, "I agree
there may well be many more than just this one."

On Monday 11/13, the London Times reported a suspected pro-Bush
vote fraud operation in Miami involving over 10,000 ballots.

11) Myth: It is highly unusual for judges to intervene after an election.
Since the designer of a disputed ballot in Florida is a member of
the party contesting the election, a legal challenge is impossible.

Fact: The most fundamental right of a democratic society is the
the right to vote, and to have one's vote correctly counted. The
legal system exists to ensure that people's rights are not violated.
Whether the person committing a violation is a Democrat or a
Republican does not affect how that violation should be treated.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1998, in connection with
a disputed Volusia County election, that if there is "substantial
noncompliance" with election laws and a "reasonable doubt" about
whether election results "expressed the will of the voters" then a
judge must "void the contested election, even in the absence of fraud
or intentional wrongdoing." (source: Wall St. Journal, 10/10/00).
The Journal indicated that there was little legal precedent for a revote in
just one area where an election occurred. It would be more likely for a
court to order a new election or to overturn the result.

These issues have arisen in other states as well. In a Massachusetts
Democratic primary in 1996 for the US House, the election was so
close after recounts that a judge had to make the final decision after
examining some of the ballots that were incompletely punched, to
determine the intention of the voter. The law clearly dictated that
it was the will of the voter that mattered, and the candidate who was
behind, William Delahunt, went on to win the final election. Call
the Capitol Switchboard if you have any doubts at 202-225-3121.

12) Myth: Richard Nixon's party in 1960 did the honorable thing in not
contesting the results of the election.

Fact: According to a column in the Los Angeles Times, 11/10/00, "on
Nov. 11, three days after the election, Thurston B. Morton, a Kentucky
senator and the Republican Party's national chairman, launched bids
for recounts or investigations in not just Illinois and Texas but also
Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Nevada, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. A few days later, Robert
H. Finch and Leonard W. Hall, two Nixon intimates, sent agents to
conduct what they called "field checks" in eight of those 11
battlegrounds. In New Jersey, local Republicans obtained court
orders for recounts; Texans brought suit in federal court. Illinois
witnessed the most vigorous crusade. Nixon aide Peter Flanigan
encouraged the creation of a Chicago-area Nixon Recount Committee. As
late as Nov. 23, Republican National Committee general counsel
H. Meade Alcorn Jr. was still predicting Nixon would take Illinois."
Recounts continued into December, but did not succeed in overturning
the result of the election.

13) Myth: "Governor Bush is still the winner, subject only to counting
the overseas ballots, which traditionally have favored the Republican
candidates" -- James Baker, Press Briefing, 11/10/00

Fact: The number of yet-to-be-counted overseas military ballots is
likely to be in the range of 500 to 2000, based on the 1996 election
in which there were 2,300 oversees absentee ballots overall, with
roughly 60% of them coming from people enlisted in the military.
According to CNN [11/10/00], the military overseas ballots that
arrived before the election were already counted.

The biggest difference from 1996 is that Clinton -- who avoided the
draft -- was running against Dole, a decorated military veteran.

In 2000 George W. Bush -- who avoided service in Vietnam and actually
lost flying privileges in the Texas Air National Guard -- is running
against Al Gore, a veteran who served in Vietnam.
It is just as possible that Gore will gain a few hundred votes from
veterans as the other way around. It is also possible that the Gore
ticket will pick up votes from Democratic diplomatic appointees, or
temporary residents and dual citizens of Israel.

HTML and printable (Word, PDF) versions will be available at:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/13-myths.html

Internet references sometimes change, so they will be updated at:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/myth-references.html

To participate in a student discussion, please send a blank email to:
can-rw-subscribe@topica.com

Additional Footnotes, References
(the web links may change; please report errors)

Myth 1: Time to Concede the Election
330 votes out of 6 million is 0.00550% of the vote.
1 vote out of 18 thousand is 0.00555% of the vote.
A margin of 0.5000% of the vote is the Florida recount threshold.

Myth 2: Number of Spoiled Ballots.
Article giving counts for invalidated ballots in 2000:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001110/el/eln_florida_recount_63.html

Odd ballot prompts allegations of widespread mistaken voting
by MITCH LIPKA, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, 11/9/00.

See Also:
http://www.herald.com/thispage.htm?content/archive/news/yahoo/digdocs/058333

Myth 3: Ballot Definitely Illegal
Those Florida Ballots Were Clearly Illegal
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20001110/t000107677.html

Some Florida Ballots Illegal, Dems Say
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/07/results/

Palm Beach Ballot Illegal, Demo Lawyers Say
http://www.miamiherald.com/content/archive/news/elect2000/digdocs/095052.htm

United Press International Story: Eye doctors say palm beach ballot
confused voters, 11/9/00, filed from Ft. Lauderdale at 4:11:44 PM EDT.

Access to Voting for Disabled and Elderly Citizens
http://www.bazelon.org/expandvote.html#ADA

Myth 4: Hand Recounts Introduce Errors
Seminole County delivers edge to Bush in recount
http://orlandosentinel.com/elections/1110sem.htm

Election Workers' Nightmare
http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20001110/t000107857.html

William Galvin, interviewed on CNN, 11/8/00.

Texas State Law, HB 331 (also =A7 212.005(d), Texas Election Code)
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/75R/billtext/HB00331F.HTM

Hand recounts used in New Mexico, overturn Gore lead
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/12/politics/12RESU.html

Bush Signed Recount Rule in Texas
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-ELN-Bush-Texas-Recounts.html

Myth 5: Selective Recounts are Unfair
Bush Team Prepares 'Scorched-Earth Plan'
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2830-2000Nov11.html

Volusia Elections Votes for Manual Recount
http://orlandosentinel.com/news/1109vol.htm

Votes may be missed in Broward County
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,36000000000124832,00.html

Myth 6: Palm Beach a Pat Buchanan Stronghold
Numbers Add Up to More Dispute
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64175-2000Nov10.html

State of Florida Party Registration
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/pdf/2000voterreg/2000genparty.pdf

Buchanan Says Disputed Florida Votes Are Gore's
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001109/pl/election_buchanan_dc_1.html

Bay Buchanan strongly denounced the Republican spin:
http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20001110/t000107856.html

Precinct-level Correlations Between Reform Party Candidate for Congress
John McGuire and all presidential candidates, analysis by
Paul H. Rosenberg" <rad@gte.netbased on Palm Beach County data.

Myth 7: Candidate Should Win Without Electoral Majority see the US Constitution.

Myth 8: Butterfly Ballots in Chicago Too
Cook ballot designer says his ballots are not like Florida's
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cdh/20001110/lo/orr_cook_s_ballots_not_like_florida_s_1.html

Myth 9: Florida Respects Voting Rights
Jesse Jackson Questions Florida Voting
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/08/jackson/

On Pencils Vs. Pens
NAACP Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida, Reuters, Wednesday November 8
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001108/pl/election_naacp_dc_2.html

Broward County
Problems at Polls Prevent Hundreds from Casting Votes (Miami Herald)
http://www.herald.com/content/today/docs/067127.htm

Ballots Ran Out According to St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/News/110900/Election2000/Voters_statewide_say_.shtml

More Irregularities Alleged
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/ELECTION_WatchdogPart5001108.html.html

Voting Scrutinized All Over Florida
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/elect2000/pres/wire2/20001110/tCB00V049205.html

Florida Ballot Quirks Scrutinized
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,247897-412,00.shtml

Florida Cops Accused of Harassing Black Voters
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/11/08/vote1108_01.html

Election Day Allegations Could Form Basis for Legal Challenges, Experts Say
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/08/recount.challenges.pol/index.html

Moving Toward a Lawsuit
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/ELECTION_WatchdogPart6001108.html

Many Mistakenly Removed from Voter Rolls
http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/floridavote.html

Xavier Suarez Involvement in Absentee Drive
http://www.feedmag.com/templates/daily.php3?a_id=3D1389

Florida Recount Continues As Lawsuit Threats Rise
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001109/pl/election_florida_dc_15.html

NAACP Says Fraudulent Calls Surface in Florida (before election)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001106/pl/election_naacp_dc_1.html

NAACP Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001108/pl/election_naacp_dc_2.html

Voting Irregularities, Chaos Reported in Florida
http://cnews.tribune.com/news/story/0,1162,oso-nation-82375,00.html
http://cnews.tribune.com/news/story/0,1162,sunsentinel-elections2000-82375,00.html

Voters Statewide Say They Had Poll Troubles
http://www.sptimes.com/News/110900/Election2000/Voters_statewide_say_.shtml

Widespread Voting Irregularities Marred Presidential Results in S. Florida
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,36000000000124144,00.html

After Bizarre Vote, Experts Question Whether Election Process Is Fair
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,36000000000123968,00.html

Dade's Ballot System Delays Tally
http://www.herald.com/content/today/docs/098048.htm

New York Times, "African Americans Demand Revote"
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/11/politics/11BLAC.html

Registered Voters' Names Failed to Appear on Voting Rolls
http://cnews.tribune.com/news/story/0,1162,oso-nation-82375,00.html

Myth 10: No Vote Fraud in Florida
Transcript: James A. Baker III on Fla. Recount, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61032-2000Nov10.html

Associated Press story was available as of 11/9 at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/pensacola.htm

Wall St. Journal Article
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB973813954697912953.htm

NAACP hears testimony of Florida voting irregularities
Breed, Allen G, Associated Press Wire, 11/11/00.
(Hearings Televised on CSPAN, 11/12/00)

Pensacola Ballot Prompts Fraud Investigation
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/110900/Local/ST001.shtml

Cigarettes Distributed for Gore Vote
http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/mil/election2000/itsyourvote/stories/-2002001105-134550.html

Gore camp demands FBI inquiry
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,34812,00.html

Myth 11: Judges Stay Out of Elections
PHIL KUNTZ and DAVID S. CLOUD, "Neverending Election Draws Questions
About Electoral Process, Constitution," WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/11/00
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB97386780919735330.htm)

Yale Law Students CAMPAIGN FOR A LEGAL ELECTION
http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Florida.Common.Law.a.html

Myth 12: Nixon Didn't Fight in 1960
It's a Myth That Nixon Acquiesced in 1960
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20001110/t000107675.html

The Fallacy of Nixon's Graceful Exit
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/10/nixon/

Was Nixon Robbed? (October 16 article)
http://slate.msn.com/HistoryLesson/00-10-16/HistoryLesson.asp

Senate History Interview (1987): The "Good Old Days" Were Not
http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_oralhist_shuman4.html

=93Illinois Republicans Lose,=94 New York Times, Dec. 13, 1960, p. 23.
=93Texas Recount Denied,=94 New York Times, Dec. 13, 1960, p. 23.

Myth 13: Republican Absentee Advantage
Texas Air National Guard
http://www.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=3D172

See also:
London Sunday Times, June 18, 2000, "Bush flies into an air force cocaine
cloud," online at http://www.sunday-times.co.uk

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports

MEDIA ADVISORY:
Media Vs. Democracy
November 16, 2000

With the outcome of the U.S. presidential election still unclear, mainstream media
are emphasizing electoral "closure" over the question of who actually won the election.

Almost immediately after the vote, calls for Al Gore to either proceed
slowly or to concede with dignity-- even before final vote tallies were in--
began to appear. Some pundits even argued that calls for a more accurate
count of the Florida vote were somehow undemocratic: "The nation's stability
is more important than whichever side falls upon the spoils of office,"
wrote David Nyhan (Boston Globe, 11/10/00). "The country should not be put
through the wringer. The system is more important than either man or either party."

After Gore withdrew his concession, Fox News Sunday's republican Tony Snow
commented (11/12/00) that "his decision made the poisonous political
atmosphere in Washington even more toxic. Gore has established a precedent
for turning elections into legal circuses and giving the final word not to
voters but to squadrons of lawyers."

On MSNBC (11/8/00), Mike Barnicle of the right-wing New York Daily News
thought an early concession might actually be to Gore's advantage: "This
could be Al Gore's moment. It could be the moment where he finally gets the
chance to live up to his great father's ideals and have the courage to step aside."

For some, a Gore concession has a noble historical parallel: Richard Nixon's
decision to bow out in 1960 instead of contesting the perceived voting
irregularities. Columnist David Nyhan (11/10/00) recalled it as
Nixon's "most magnaminous act," while the New York Times (11/9/00) and U.S.
News and World Report (11/20/00) referred to Nixon's own memoirs to prove
the claim that Nixon bowed out to avoid being labeled a "sore loser."
Columnist Richard Reeves said of Nixon on the op-ed page of the New
York Times (11/13/00): "He understood what recounts, lawsuits and
depositions carried out over months -- even years -- would do to the nation."

These comments appear to make the unwise move of taking Nixon's memoirs at
face value. As an essay by David Greenberg in Slate (10/16/00) points out,
legal challenges in 1960 were actually widespread: Greenberg notes that
Republicans "succeeded in obtaining recounts, empanelling grand juries, and
involving U.S. attorneys and the FBI," with the outcome in 11 states coming
under scrutiny from Nixon aides.

In the name of stability and keeping up international appearances, many
national media outlets declared the unclear election results a "crisis,"
calling for a quick resolution. NBC's ultra-conservative Tim Russert
(Nightly News, 11/8/00) warned that Gore "can't extend it to too long, nor
can he become a whiner about Florida at some point," and offered this
advice, particularly to Gore and his advisors:  "If they continue then to
file lawsuits and begin to contest various areas of the state, then people
will begin to suggest, 'uh-oh, this is not magnanimous. This is being a sore loser.'
I think the vice president understands that as well.... If it starts dragging into petty
politics and we get to Thanksgiving and we still don't know who our president is,
I think the public will not have much patience with the candidate they believe is
dragging it out."

In fact, most public opinion polls suggest that citizens are taking a much
more reasonable approach to the situation than some of the media,
supporting a process that emphasizes fairness rather than speed. A Newsweek
poll found that 75 percent of respondents "preferred removing 'all
reasonable doubt' about the Florida voting rather than 'getting matters
resolved as soon as possible.'" An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
(11/13/00) found that 55 percent of respondents favored the idea of
recounting ballots, even if the process takes several weeks.

CNN's Larry King, though, seemed to have trouble reading these results. "The
public, polls show they want it finished," he commented to a guest
(11/13/00). "The public at least thus far does want it finished. Does that
surprise you?" In a November 13 editorial, the New York Times insisted that
there is "mounting public impatience with the delay in determining the
outcome of the presidential election."

One reason media might perceive a "crisis" is that much of the discussion,
particularly on television, has relied on partisan debate, with
representatives of the Bush and Gore camps squaring off on any number of
issues. In such an environment, the issues that need serious investigation--
stories of voter manipulation, the refusal to allow legitimate voters their
right to vote-- are not pursued, while some of the more dubious arguments
about the vote circulate over and over again.

Nightline's November 9 broadcast was one of the worst examples in this
category, as Ted Koppel chose to only interview three senior Bush aides
about ballot irregularities. Not surprisingly, they were not impressed with
the complaints from citizens that their ballots were unclear or confusing;
Koppel did not subject his guests to tough questioning.

Conservative media even charged Al Gore with trying to steal the election:
Columnist George Will (Washington Post, 11/12/00) wrote that "all that
remains to complete the squalor of Gore's attempted coup d'etat is some
improvisation by Janet Reno, whose last Florida intervention involved a
lawless SWAT team seizing a 6-year-old. She says there is no federal role,
but watch for a 'civil rights' claim on behalf of some protected minority or
some other conjured pretext."

The comment about a "protected minority" seems to be a reference to the
complaints of voter fraud and intimidation coming from African-American
communities in Florida. Despite the almost around-the-clock media attention
given the election story, few media outlets have pursued these stories-- for
example, the charge that thousands of mostly black Gore supporters
were given ballots that had already been marked (Times of London, 11/13/00).
The NAACP has been taking testimony from voters who charge they were
intimidated and harassed at various polling places. The Congressional Black
Caucus has also called for further investigation into these allegations.

Investigative coverage of the democratic process may be too much to ask of
some media. As Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly explained
(Washington Post, 11/11/00): "You're trapped in a box full of numbers. With
Monica Lewinsky, you could say, 'She's a tramp,' 'She's not a tramp'; you
could do psychoanalysis. This is a one-dimensional story. You have to keep
looking for new angles."

In a situation that goes to the heart of the American democratic process,
it's unfortunate that some in the media seem to have trouble finding "new angles."