Al Gore is right

What is ignoble is the GOP's hypocrisy: the Bush campaign has abandoned long-held Republican principles of states' rights by seeking intervention from the federal courts. Combine that with the Republicans' poisonous rhetoric -- accusing Gore of trying to "steal the election" or stage a "coup d'état" -- and you have a party that stands for nothing but its own gain. Indeed, the GOP strategy is a rehash of the old Big Lie: tell it often enough and eventually people will come to believe it. Even though the recounts were conducted in public, observed by scores of journalists and observers from both parties, and broadcast around the world.

When judging Al Gore's decision to continue fighting, keep this in mind: more people voted for Al Gore for president in 2000 than voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, or for George H.W. Bush in 1988. More people voted for Al Gore for president in 2000 than voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980. And more people voted for Al Gore for president in 2000 than voted for George W. Bush.

Of course, the only tally that counts in this race is the official one recorded in Tallahassee. That's the count that will give the winning candidate 25 electoral votes, enough to capture the presidency. Gore believes that more Floridians voted for him than for George W. Bush, even though Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris declared Texas governor George W. Bush the victor last Sunday by 537 votes.

We think Gore is right. More Floridians did vote for him than for Bush. But their votes aren't being counted.

In Miami-Dade County, about 10,000 ballots weren't counted because voting machines couldn't read them. They would have been included in the manual recount authorized by the Florida Supreme Court. But the county canvassing board abruptly decided not to count them -- a decision that was made after an unruly mob of Bush supporters swarmed the premises where volunteers were trying to count votes. Gore could probably gain an additional 600 votes if these ballots were counted. At the time of the decision to abandon the recount, Gore had already picked up 157 votes.

In Nassau County, an election official submitted the vote count from the original tally taken November 7 and not the machine recount -- as mandated by law -- because 218 ballots could not be accounted for. If the result from the second machine recount had been submitted, Gore would have gained an additional 51 votes.

A manual recount of the votes in Palm Beach County showed Gore gaining approximately 200 more votes. But this tally was not used because the county canvassing board didn't finish the manual recount until two hours after 5 p.m. Sunday, the deadline set by the Florida Supreme Court, although well before 9 a.m. Monday, the optional deadline also given by the court. In addition, the Gore campaign has charged that the Palm Beach County canvassing board was overly strict in throwing out dimpled ballots. If these ballots counted, Gore could gain about 800 votes, according to Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.

Taken together, these facts suggest that more Floridians intended to vote for Gore than for Bush. Take the pro-Gore votes that haven't been counted -- the estimated 800 in Palm Beach County, the estimated 600 in Miami-Dade County, and the 51 in Nassau County -- and Gore wins by about 914 votes.

Much is being made of absentee ballots, particularly those in Seminole County -- where GOP activists actually filled in missing voter-ID numbers on absentee ballots as they trickled in during the weeks before the November 7 election. If they were thrown out, Gore would benefit to the tune of 4797 votes. But these votes, like the dimpled ballots, should also be counted. The point here is that every ballot cast by a voter should be included in the final tally.

The important question is whether Gore will actually get the uncounted votes credited in his favor. There's no precedent for what we're seeing now in Florida. But one thing is clear: calls for Al Gore to give up his legal fight are premature.

Gore should keep fighting -- at least until the US Supreme Court weighs in next week. Ensuring that all votes are counted is the right thing to do. As House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt pointed out this week, under Florida's Freedom of Information Act, news organizations, citizens, and party activists can demand to count these ballots next year. Imagine the prospect of putting Bush in office only to learn halfway through his term that he lost not only the popular vote, but the electoral vote as well.

Let's count the votes now.

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