Editorial: Take time to get this done right

Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.

After Wednesday morning, when the initial returns showed George W. Bush ahead of Al Gore by 1,784 votes in Florida, some pundits and Republicans started saying it was time for Gore to show statesmanship by conceding the election. They pointed to Richard Nixon's decision in 1960 to forgo contesting Illinois' results, which many observers believe Chicago Mayor Richard Daley fraudulently delivered to John F. Kennedy, which in turn handed the presidency to the Democrat. But this is a stunning line of reasoning: It suggests that it is much better to quickly call an election, even if there is a legitimate dispute as to the vote's accuracy.

Indeed, what the Florida recount is showing is that the election was even closer than anyone thought. The initial count that showed Bush ahead by 1,784 votes actually was much less after the Associated Press' unofficial recount showed Thursday that the margin was only 327 votes. In addition, Florida election officials said that it could take until Nov. 17 to count all the ballots cast by Floridians overseas that were postmarked by Election Day. Also compounding matters are serious, credible allegations that some voters in Palm Beach County, Fla., mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Gore because the ballot in that county was terribly confusing.

It might be frustrating for the nation to not yet know who the president-elect is, but this is about electing the nation's chief executive, not seeing how fast we can declare a winner. "Nobody ever said that democracy was simple or efficient," said Bob Crawford, a Florida election board member, noting that anyone should look south to Cuba if they wanted simplicity. If in fact it's eventually determined that Gore collected more votes than Bush in Florida, imagine the injustice there would have been if the election was unnecessarily thrown to Bush, especially since Gore has won the popular vote nationally. We've already seen the networks make two gigantic mistakes on election night, especially when they prematurely declared Bush had won the presidency before all of Florida's returns were in. Let's not make another rush to judgment.