With the result of one of the closest American presidential elections in history hinging on the state of Florida, some University students who hail from the Sunshine State are kicking themselves over and over again for not exercising their constitutional right to vote.
"I didn't, and I feel like a complete idiot for doing that," said Devon Keefe '01, who calls Orange County, Fla., home.
"I just kind of flaked and didn't get my absentee ballot," she said. "I let time get away from me and didn't do it."
Keefe — who said she would have voted for Vice President Al Gore — acknowledged her excuse was "not really a good [one]."
Florida has been performing a mandatory recount of all ballots cast. Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush and his running mate, former secretary of defense Dick Cheney, led in the first certified count by a margin of more than 1,700 votes.
Russell Eckenrod '01 is also a Floridian and Gore supporter who did not vote in Florida. But he did cast his ballot for Gore in New Jersey and had mixed emotions about his choice of registering in Princeton instead of his home county of Manatee.
He said he was glad to have voted in Princeton "because of the Holt election being so close," referring to New Jersey's 12th Congressional District race, where it is still unclear whether Democratic incumbent Rush Holt or Republican challenger Dick Zimmer has won the seat.
Palm Beach problem
Eckenrod said he was worried about the situation in Florida's Palm Beach County, where many Gore supporters claimed they were confused by the county's "butterfly" style ballot and may have inadvertently voted for Reform Party candidate Patrick Buchanan instead of Gore.
"I hope they get this Palm Beach situation straightened out," Eckenrod said. He argued it was "pretty clear something is wrong [there] legally and ethically."
Parker Altman '02 is a resident of Palm Beach County whose mother worked in one of the polling sites where the butterfly ballot was used.
Altman — who said he voted for Bush — disputed the claims of those Palm Beach County citizens who said the ballot itself caused confusion. Instead, he said, it was "ignorance" that caused those voters to vote incorrectly — if, he said, they in fact voted incorrectly at all.
"Say everybody that voted for Buchanan intended on voting for Gore," Altman said, referring to the approximately 3,200 Buchanan votes cast in the county. "That is still only one-half of 1 percent of the total voting population in Palm Beach County."
"99.5 percent of the county did not have a problem with it."
Altman characterized his county as "not the richest, not the most-educated, most-literate county . . . and none of them had problems."
Addressing the claim that elderly voters were confused by the ballot, Altman said there are "precincts in this county that are made up almost entirely of retirement homes, and they have town meetings where they go down the ballot and tell them how to vote to protect their interests."
Ground zero
Some Princeton Floridians did cast their ballot in what has become ground zero of this 2000 presidential election.
Chris McLaughlin '01 voted in his home of Hillsborough County and was very glad he did so. McLaughlin voted for Bush and said that "once [today's] recount is done, whoever the winner is should win the race."
Melissa Meadows '01, on the other hand, is a Florida native who decided to vote in Princeton, because, she said, it was "more convenient." Meadows said, however, that she "definitely" wished she had voted at home instead.
Meadows, a Gore supporter, said, "People are quite irritated and agitated and upset" in Dade County, her home county.
But she noted that this election is not the first time voting results have been called into question in Florida. She cited the Miami mayoral election two years ago as an example of what she characterized as "awkward" voting practices in the state.
"A whole bunch of people got arrested for voting fraud," she said of the election, which was marred by accusations of racial discrimination and various voting improprieties.
Natalie Christensen '01's problem with Florida's election was somewhat different. She requested her absentee ballot well in advance and sent it in with more than enough time to be counted — or so she thought.
But Christensen, another Hillsborough County native, was somewhat surprised when her ballot was returned by the postal service because of insufficient postage. Christensen said she did not know if she put anything extra that was unneeded in the envelope, but pointed out that "nowhere on the ballot did it say that it required extra postage."
Christensen did not reveal for whom she voted for president.
Derek Djeu '01 is a Princetonian who also calls Hillsborough County home. He also sent for an absentee ballot "quite a long time ago," but it never arrived.
"I wasn't too disappointed," Djeu said, "until I saw how close the race was."
"But I would have voted for Nader, so my vote probably wouldn't have helped anyone," he said.
Grant Atkins '02, a native of Orange County, was able to vote in Florida for Gore. However, he said he had many friends from home who attend college in different states who "were all kind of upset" because they either did not vote or voted in the state where they go to school.
Atkins said he hopes for a quick resolution of this election's controversy.
Though he said he "obviously" hopes that Gore wins, he said he does "not think it is in anybody's best interest to drag this out."
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