At 05:50 PM 11/16/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>I heard this comment today,
>
>You mean to tell me that all those old retirees in Fla. can play 15 bingo
>cards at once, but can't punch a hole in a ballot card without screwing it
>up!
>
>Lanier in Chattanooga, who might be one of those some day himself!
>
Lanier,
Do you suppose the following had anything to do with those people having
trouble with
that ballot?
I got my haircut today and that was the topic of conversation. Everyone,
young and old
had trouble getting that ballot down into the slot, and Broward didn't have
the butterfly
ballots either. I thought it was just my husband and I , because of our
physical conditions,
but it wasn't, and that is all people are talking about down here. I had to
take mine out
3 times before I got it down into the slot, but I blamed it , mistakenly I
think, on PD.
None of us had any idea at the time of voting about the dimple punch, or
the chad not coming
out. I'd bet money, marbles and chalk that my vote for the last 7 or 8
years haven't counted
at all because with my PD, I can't push that hard. There are no
instructions telling you
that you do have to push hard, nor have I ever turned my ballot over to
look at the back.
BUT I WILL FROM NOW ON!!
If you'll put your Republican prejudices away for a minute,and think how
you would feel
if you were Jewish and had voted for a man who doesn't think the Holocaust
happened??
To me that is the saddest thing I can think of.
It's very easy to be a Monday Morning Quarterback,
but none of us at the time realized how important our ballot would become.
As a Native Born American, my vote is important to me, just as it is to
everyone
else. We did just get dressed, drive to the polling place, wrestle with
the ballot
because we couldn't find anything else to do that day!
If you are tired of waiting for Florida, you have all of our permission to
go ahead
with the votes from the other 49 States, or have you figured that out yet????
just me,
Marjorie
68/58/55
From the Miami Herald Reader's Forum, OPINION
page 10B Tuesday, November 14, 2000
I HAD PROBLEMS WITH THE BALLOT
I had difficulty making my ballot card fit into the slot
properly on election day and, even when I did get it in, I had to
use some serious elbow grease to punch through the hole for
Al Gore. I didn't have this problem when I voted three months
ago in our county elections.
I am a publisher and deal with print-registrations almost
every day. The first thought that crossed my mind as I tried to get
the ballot into the slot was that this ballot was printed out of registration;
either the holes weren't perforated where they were
supposed to be or weren't perforated properly. Was it a mere
"registration" problem by the printer or designer?
As I exited the polling booth, I thought about mentioning it
to the people there, but they were busy. From my experience, I can
understand how and why some elderly people might easily have had
trouble punching through the ballot and getting into the slot properly
to begin with. Though only 49 years old, even I had to use my reading
glasses and read it carefully to be sure I was punching the right hole.
And we in Miami, didn't even use the disputed butterfly ballot.
I'm amazed that people are trying to deny these problems
existed and are trying to prevent recounts.
GEORGE MIHAIU
Coral Gables
