We have all seen this election up close. Harris, once blessedly unknown, is now famous enough to be parodied. Palm Beach County's Judge Charles E. Burton is only a bit less famous, although a lot more fair. We have seen the mobs in Miami and are aware of the pressure brought by GOP lawyers on every election board in the state to count the votes of military personnel, living or dead. It is true, of course, that every election, like the making of sausage, cannot bear scrutiny.
Ballots disappear, reappear and then disappear again.
Machines break down, so do people sometimes, and there is no accounting for the confusion of voters. Some people are going to be disenfranchised. Maybe Gore could not make up his deficit even by wringing every last vote out of Florida. And it is not at all clear to me either that even if he could do so, it would be the best outcome at the moment. But another hour or two in Palm Beach County seemed reasonable enough.