"Recount" - A Critique
This weekend saw the debut of an HBO television movie called "Recount", a supposed docudrama about the 2000 Presidential Election recount in the state of Florida.
I had several problems with it, but I managed to put aside the protrayals of Democrats seen only as righteous crusaders and Republicans portrayed as either buffoons or evil lawyer types long enough to sit through it.
It was pathetic.
Why, you ask? Because the whole point of the show seemed to be that Gore was jobbed out of the Presidency. This interpretation is wrong.
As explained in this report from PBS, now long since forgotten I'm sure, an evaluation of ballots using the method the Gore campaign insisted was the only fair way to count would have resulted in Bush winning, not by 537 votes, but by 1,665. This was something "Recount" failed to mention, even once.
Some highlights from the report:
"In the first full study of Florida's ballots since the election ended, The Miami Herald and USA Today reported George W. Bush would have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin if the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court would have been allowed to continue, using standards that would have allowed even faintly dimpled "undervotes" -- ballots the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through -- to be counted." [db - This was the standard the Gore team asked for.]
So I hope we can all refresh our memories and move on once and for all as we face a new election cycle, preferably without pablum such as "Recount".
I had several problems with it, but I managed to put aside the protrayals of Democrats seen only as righteous crusaders and Republicans portrayed as either buffoons or evil lawyer types long enough to sit through it.
It was pathetic.
Why, you ask? Because the whole point of the show seemed to be that Gore was jobbed out of the Presidency. This interpretation is wrong.
As explained in this report from PBS, now long since forgotten I'm sure, an evaluation of ballots using the method the Gore campaign insisted was the only fair way to count would have resulted in Bush winning, not by 537 votes, but by 1,665. This was something "Recount" failed to mention, even once.
Some highlights from the report:
"In the first full study of Florida's ballots since the election ended, The Miami Herald and USA Today reported George W. Bush would have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin if the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court would have been allowed to continue, using standards that would have allowed even faintly dimpled "undervotes" -- ballots the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through -- to be counted." [db - This was the standard the Gore team asked for.]
So I hope we can all refresh our memories and move on once and for all as we face a new election cycle, preferably without pablum such as "Recount".