Nation ready for president
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 29, 2000
LEONARD GRAY and ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / November 29, 2000
Three weeks after the presidential election the U.S. still has no officialpresident-elect, and many here in the River Parishes have seen and heard enough.
While Democratic lawyers for Vice President Al Gore are contesting the Florida election, won by a slight margin by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, localpoliticos simply want the entire mess to go away. Many blame the Floridaelection process itself for creating the controversy.
St. John the Baptist Parish Councilman Cleveland Farlough is one of those.”It is a shame that in this era when we can put a man on the moon, we can’t hold a decent election,” said Farlough.
Louise Broach of Luling, a member of the Republican State Central Executive Committee, membership chairman of the Republican Women of Louisiana and a board member of the Republican Women of St. Charles Parish, said thesituation is a little scary for her.
Broach said it doesn’t make sense to her how Florida’s election process could be so flawed, with no one noticing it before.
As for the candidates, Broach said, “It’s like two little boys fighting.” Sheadded she’s disappointed in Democratic moves, calling them “a little radical.””If it’s not a clear vote, it should not be counted, and if the military voters are on the list, they have to be counted,” she said.
Thelma Schexnayder of Destrehan, a regular observer of St. Charles ParishCouncil doings, said she’s been a registered Democrat for “40-something” years but this election mess has made her “disgusted with both people.”She said she is seriously considering changing her voter registration to “No Party.”St. Charles Parish Councilman Terry Authement, a registered Democrat,recalled his own experience with tight elections and shifting vote totals.
During his first campaign for councilman Authement apparently came in third place during the first primary.
Disappointed, but accepting the hair-thin results, he congratulated the runoff candidates, picked up his yard signs and left for a hunting trip.
A few days later the parish clerk of court contacted him with the news that the election machines had been opened and a verified vote total placed Authement in the runoff.
He hurried back to attempt to revive his campaign, but lost the runoff anyway.
“It’s hard to believe the system Florida has been their practice for so many years,” Authement said. “It seems it would have been challenged before this.”He continued, in speaking of the current round of appeals and court battles, “It’s going to hurt both ways.” He added, “It’s making a mockery of thepresidency.”Among some in St. John Parish there is a consensus on the importance ofthe electoral college.
Chris Guidry, chief administrative officer of St. John Parish said, “This maybe one of the few times in history when the electoral college has proved to be relevant.”Former state legislator and community activist Harold Keller said, “I was never for the electoral college, but now I see the need for it. It gives thesmall states a voice in the process.”Parish Councilman Duaine Duffy agreed.
“As a student of government I was a bit leery of the electoral college,” he said. “Now, I step back and see that were it not for the electoral college, theelection would have been decided only by the big states.The electoral collegegives a voice to the smaller states.”Farlough said the electoral college should remain, but with one major revision.
“I would apportion the electoral votes according to the popular vote for each state,” said Farlough. “That would be the fairest way to do it.”They agreed the process, though a bit sloppy, showed that our system works.
“Other countries would be in chaos and in revolt,” said Duffy. “Here, we are incourt.”Guidry agreed.
“We have a process that is working. It isn’t a perfect system, but it is thefairest one we have so far,” he said.
Farlough thinks the fault in Florida is in the way the ballots are handled.
“What surprised me was that Florida had so many different types of ballots,” he said. “It’s obvious that someone could get confused.”Farlough finds the process of the vote counting very suspicious.
“It is difficult for me to understand why they had to throw out 19,000 votes,” Farlough said. “It proves to me that something is wrong.”St. John politicos agree this mess couldn’t happen in Louisiana. In fact, theythink the Louisiana election system should be used as a model for other states.
“Politically, Louisiana is much more advanced than the other states,” Keller said.
Duffy echoed the sentiment and said, “I’m so glad Louisiana is ahead of the “Maybe Congress can do something and have consistent balloting methods in all the states, like Louisiana uses voting machines in all the parishes,” added Farlough.
No matter how the Florida vote turns out and who our next president is, the important concept for Duffy is, “Every single vote counts in an election.”Maybe so, but Keller summed up what a lot of Americans are thinking right now.
“Regardless if you win or lose, we’ll just all glad when it is all over,” he said.
Capt. Patrick Yoes of the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office, a registeredRepublican, said he believes it’s a disgrace things have continued to go on this far.
“However, I have no doubt that if the tables were turned Bush would be doing the same thing Gore is doing now,” he said. “But if I could tell Gore two words,I’d say, ‘Woody Jenkins.'”
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