A nation kept waiting for at least another day

More than 24 hours after results first started coming in, the nation remained in suspense last night, wondering who the next president might be.

The day, unlike the night before, was without many surprises. As was predicted early yesterday morning, votes in Florida and some other states are being recounted. Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush remain in a very close race in Florida, with Bush up by only a few thousand votes when officials halted the recount efforts of nearly 6 million ballots yesterday evening. Counting will resume today.

Barring any major changes in other states, whoever wins Florida will win the White House.

The Associated Press reported that at the end of counting yesterday, including all absentee ballots received so far, Bush was in the lead with 2,909,135 votes and Gore was trailing close behind with 2,907,351 votes — a margin of 1,784 votes in a state with almost 9 million registered voters.

MSNBC reported last night that during the recount Bush gained 254 votes while Gore grabbed 605 more votes than in the original count. That left Gore with a net gain of 351, with 28 out of 67 counties finished with the recount.

The recount was required by Florida law because Bush's lead after the first count was less than one-half of 1 percent. Florida officials said they expect to finish the recount by the end of today.

Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, recused himself yesterday from the electoral review process to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Florida's governor typically sits on the state's canvassing board.

With Florida's electoral votes hinging on the recount, the Gore campaign celebrated its lead in popular votes that emerged during the day.

In a twist strangely reminiscent of former president Jimmy Carter's recent trip to observe elections in Mexico, former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and James A. Baker III '52 joined monitoring teams sent to Florida to ensure the accuracy of the process.

Even if the recount is finished today, Florida may still have to wait for ballots sent in from overseas. Those ballots, which come primarily from military personnel and their families, can arrive as late as 10 days after the election under Florida law. And election officials have no way of knowing how many there will be.

While most people focused on the recount, some complained of electoral irregularities in Florida.

Democrats also made noise about irregularities in the election, with many focusing on 'butterfly ballots' used in Palm Beach County. Some Democrats said the controversial ballots confused voters and caused them to vote for Reform Party nominee Patrick Buchanan when they meant to vote for Gore.

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Gore led Bush in the county by more than 110,000 votes. Buchanan won 3,407 votes in Palm Beach County, more than in any other part of the state.

Some leaders in the black community said that African-American voters had been kept out of polls in Florida. Jesse Jackson and NAACP President Kwesi Mfume both called for an investigation into the polling process. They claimed that some blacks had been told that there were no more ballots available or that polls were closed.

The rest of the world was fascinated and confused yesterday by the debacle in the American election. The International Herald-Tribune — an overseas English language newspaper published by The New York Times and The Washington Post — echoed feelings in the United States in yesterday's edition, saying "The world was extremely puzzled."