Democracy is a great system, but we no it is not perfect. That is why so many of the principles constitutionalism, natural rights, and republicanism are so important. There are three examples of the news this weekend that show some of the difficulties democracy can face.
Washington State: Getting an accurate vote count is difficult. The recount for our governor has put Dino Rossi ahead by 42 votes. By my calculation that is 42 votes out of 2,808,342 votes cast. It is truly mind blowing. Gregoire's campaign now is calling for a hand recount, which they will have to pay for under state law, and that means that we won't have a winner declared until sometime around Christmas.
Rossi won the first count by 261. It seems to me with almost 3 million votes to count, that a hand recount will probably result in yet a different result. If Rossi wins, then I think Gregoire will have no choice but to concede the election. If Gregoire comes out on top in the hand recount, Rossi will undoubtedly take action demanding the first tallies be recognized as the legitimate.
What are the consequences of such a close elections? Besides the issue of who the actual governor will be, what are the positive and negative impacts this election will have on political participation in this state?
Thursday's papers had lots of info on the election. If you want to access an it on the web try the link below.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=recount25m&date=20041125&query=Rossi%2C+Recount
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