It is now almost 2 days since everyone - including Mitt Romney and his team - accepted the fact that President Barack Obama has been re-elected by the Americans for 4 more years.
That is except for a gang of retirees and rednecks in that nick of swamp and woods they call The Sunshine State. Yup! I am talking about Florida, the only state of the Union which is yet to officially announce a winner in the US Presidential elections. (Today the news is Mitt Romney campaign have conceded Florida to Obama).
For Florida it is nothing new. It is the same state which in the 2000 Presidential election kept the US and the world in suspense for one whole month - the idiots were debating and fighting over chads. Heck! After a month, it took the intervention of US Supreme Court to award that flawed election to George Bush and close the issue, then.
So what is the official reason for this unethical, uncaring delay? Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, Penelope Townsley says 'She wants to get it right'! Somebody should ask her to count from one to hundred - just to checkthat whether she has learned to count whether she still remembers how to count.
;-)
You know, there were only about 8 million votes cast in Florida. It is not appropriate to compare with India, as voting system, mode and manner of counts differ. But seeing that an average Parliamentary constituency in India has about 1 million voters - the whole of Florida is approximately equal to the National Capital Region of Delhi, with 7 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Imagine the furore the (State) Election Commission will face, if Delhi alone is unable to declare results for 2 days in the coming2012 2014 General Elections!
But then, in the US the situation and the reasons are complicated. There have been complaints over attempted voter purge, reduction of early voting period (from 14 to 8 days), long lines on election day, voting procedures, confusing double sided butterfly ballots voiced across Florida.
A surly friend from US whom I spoke to yesterday said, ‘it is probably because Florida expects money from the Federal government. In a quirk of policy, the more a state displays inefficiency in elections, it gets more funding.’ I don’t know whether it is true or not - but it sounds logical in a left handed way.
Guess this 2002 Florida Today cartoon is still relevant.
That is except for a gang of retirees and rednecks in that nick of swamp and woods they call The Sunshine State. Yup! I am talking about Florida, the only state of the Union which is yet to officially announce a winner in the US Presidential elections. (Today the news is Mitt Romney campaign have conceded Florida to Obama).
For Florida it is nothing new. It is the same state which in the 2000 Presidential election kept the US and the world in suspense for one whole month - the idiots were debating and fighting over chads. Heck! After a month, it took the intervention of US Supreme Court to award that flawed election to George Bush and close the issue, then.
So what is the official reason for this unethical, uncaring delay? Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, Penelope Townsley says 'She wants to get it right'! Somebody should ask her to count from one to hundred - just to check
;-)
You know, there were only about 8 million votes cast in Florida. It is not appropriate to compare with India, as voting system, mode and manner of counts differ. But seeing that an average Parliamentary constituency in India has about 1 million voters - the whole of Florida is approximately equal to the National Capital Region of Delhi, with 7 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Imagine the furore the (State) Election Commission will face, if Delhi alone is unable to declare results for 2 days in the coming
But then, in the US the situation and the reasons are complicated. There have been complaints over attempted voter purge, reduction of early voting period (from 14 to 8 days), long lines on election day, voting procedures, confusing double sided butterfly ballots voiced across Florida.
A surly friend from US whom I spoke to yesterday said, ‘it is probably because Florida expects money from the Federal government. In a quirk of policy, the more a state displays inefficiency in elections, it gets more funding.’ I don’t know whether it is true or not - but it sounds logical in a left handed way.
Guess this 2002 Florida Today cartoon is still relevant.
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