Residents of the Sweet Home area from both sides of the political fence told The New Era they were unhappy with the way the presidential election is being handled.
As of the weekend, the winner of the election, held on Nov. 7, had not been determined.
“They’re stretching it out,” David Grandorff said. He wanted Vice President Al Gore to win, but he didn’t like the way the election was being stretched out. He was concerned that one state or even one county could decide an election.
“I think it’s a publicity thing,” said Christopher Hicks, also a Gore supporter, but he agreed with a recount. “I think it’s cool that we’re able to call for a recount, but I don’t think they should stretch it out.”
“One idiot is as good as any other,” Lisa Drury said. “Nader should’ve won. I get a kick out of Florida. Either way, it’s going to be tangled up in court issues.”
Drury found the thought of just doing without a president appealing.
“I care, but I think it’s a bunch of garbage right now,” Drury said. The nation went out and cast its votes, but “some people couldn’t read their ballots correctly, so now we’re up in the air.”
She suggested holding another election.
“I think it’s really a shame,” Debbie Powell said. “I think it’s sad doing what we’re doing now…. It’s kind of embarrassing. I think they both ought to back off and take it as it goes.”
Powell supported neither candidate, but Gov. George W. Bush did win election night and then on recount.
“It that’s the way it falls, that’s the way it falls,” Powell said. “I don’t agree with them not counting our service people. That’s wrong. They’re here to protect us.”
“To sum it up, I can understand a need to ask for a recount,” Dan Kern said. “The hand count seems a little too tedious and especially with the timeline set for everything. It’s making both guys look small and petty.”
Kern pointed to the race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy when Nixon won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college. At that time, Nixon stepped back. Kern thought this race should have gone the same way.
“It seems that we have politicians more worried about themselves than the country,” Kern said. “Since I supported Bush, it’s easy for me to say all that.”
He’s not sure his viewpoint would be the same had he been a Gore supporter.
Kern had expected Bush to win the popular vote but lose in the electoral college. Instead, the reverse has happened.
At this point, Kern would call Bush the winner, he said. “Since Bush won the first three counts, I say they should stop.”
Addressing concerns with the ballots in Palm Beach County, Fla., Kern thinks they should not be adjusted at this point but addressed after the election is completed. To try to adjust it at this point violates rules, and Florida should stop and work on the problems later.
“I think it’s a crock,” Bob MacCoone said. “I think there’s not going to be a winner at all. No matter who gets it, it’s going to be a no-win situation…. Whoever gets it is going to go down in history as a whiner, the person who was a bad sport about it….
“They’ve already taken it out of the hands of the people. They’ve put it into the courts…. With all the controversy … I think what should be done is throw the whole thing out and revote the state.”
He also suggested that Florida be thrown out of the equation and using the remaining states to make the decision.
“I didn’t care for any of them,” MacCoone said. “I did vote for Gore because he was the lesser of two evils. I didn’t want either one of them. I think it’s a sad, sad case.”
MacCoone isn’t surprised by the impasse.
“Look at the Scriptures,” he said. “It tells in the last days, there’s going to be all this turmoil going on. We’re getting there, although it’s probably a long ways off still.”
MacCoone was concerned about what this election says about individual freedom.
He cited a poll that said 63 percent of voters felt their votes didn’t mean anything.
“This country was based on freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to vote. I think it’s (this election) is a slap in the American voters’ face.”
The government is not listening to the people, he said. Elections these days are about money. “It’s whoever has the biggest interests … the biggest money is put in as president. It’s been that way for years. They need to give it back to the people.”
“I think every vote ought to count if a person takes the time to vote,” Leona McCann said. “As long as it’s done properly. I don’t want fraud. I don’t think they should do the dimple thing.”
As long as the hand recount is done equally with overseers, McCann said she favored it. “I think that it’s important because that’s what democracy is about. It’s about every person’s vote counting.”
McCann thought maybe the system should be revamped where everyone across the country votes the same style ballot, but the Electoral College should stay in place as a part of the country’s checks and balances. She suggested that maybe it could be changed to give each state a single vote with Washington D.C. also receiving one electoral vote.
McCann is a Democrat though she did not want to say whom she voted for.
“I don’t know there’s that much difference between the two candidates,” McCann said. “They’ve made their promises, which they’re not going to keep … because they don’t really have control of everything.”
Most important, whoever is elected this year in all offices need to work together, McCann said.
“I think it’s definitely a mess,” Sandy Leonard said. “I think it’s going to be used as a tool to get rid of our checks and balances, the Electoral College. I think we need to be ruled by the laws and not by whatever is popular at the time.”
Popular vote is a good idea, Leonard said, but this election needs to be governed by the law.
“We used to have a republic,” Leonard, a Bush supporter, said. “And I don’t think we are any more. We should have had a decision before now. I think hand counting is dangerous in that both sides can do fraud.”
If voters are having a hard time with a ballot, then they need to change their system, Leonard said. “It’s left this country uneasy.”
At the same time, it has brought out persons who have never been interested in politics before, Leonard said, and she hopes that it might help fight apathy. Whether the interest of voters will be maintained or die off remains to be seen.
The process at the same time is a testament to America’s system.
One man said to Leonard last week that “in other countries, if a vote goes awry they bring out the tanks. We bring out the lawyers.”
A lot of people are upset about Florida throwing out military ballots without postmarks, Leonard said.
“I think it’s messed up,” Bush supporter Debra Colley said. “I just see Gore going more into the courts on Monday to get the counts he wants.”
Prior to this election, Colley has never been into the presidential election, but this situation has captured her interest.
Bush should have won “after the first count, but after the second for sure,” Colley said.
“I don’t understand how they can be selectively recounting for third time in Florida,” David Schmidt, who voted for Bush, said. To recount a state once makes sense, but to recount individual counties doesn’t seem right. The machines are fair and have no bias, but hand counting introduces the opportunity for a strong-willed person on either side to manipulate the results. If one county is going to be recounted by hand though, all counties in Florida should be recounted by hand.
“I think Bush won the initial recount by the machines,” Schmidt said. “I think Bush won.”
At this point there have been multiple recounts and Gore still doesn’t have enough votes, Schmidt said. “I’m not sure who’s going to win right now. I just hope the recounts are fair. If Gore wins, that’s fine. If Bush wins, I don’t care as long as it’s fair.”
“As long as (Federal Reserve Chairman Alan) Greenspan stays in,” Ken Collins said. “The country is in good shape.”