The idea that litigation is ominous would carry more weight, I argued, if Gore, with a 200,000 lead in the popular vote, were in any way challenging the legitimacy of the electoral college, trying to change the rules midway in the game. But he isn't and he won't. He is just asking for a fair and accurate vote. That would be vexatious if the rivals were separated by thousands, but they are not. It comes down to a matter of hundreds or scores and a system that is no advertisement for American technology.
Machine voting is admitted by the manufacturer to have a margin of error.
Safety-first hand counts are provided for in Florida election law, and have been used by both parties in other squeakers. And they are in the election rules signed into law by Governor Bush himself. Gore wants to win, but he is not being as cynical as his critics maintain when he says the argument is as much about democracy as winning. Both men have a duty to protect the integrity of the single ballot. The right of every citizen to vote and to have his or her vote counted was won by ordeal too recently in this country for disenfranchisement by any means to be regarded as a trivial matter.