Who would be allowed to vote? All qualified voters, including those who hadn't voted on Election Day? When would we hold that special election? How much money would the candidates probably spend in trying to woo that vote --they've already spent about $2 billion. Well, if it is all going to hang on another election, limited to one county in Florida out of 67, what would the spending be there?
There are 659,000 qualified voters in Palm Beach County, 64 percent of whom voted on Tuesday. Those who didn't vote join the 50 percent of Americans who didn't vote. But if the future of the universe hangs on their vote, the absentee voters might think better of it. Whom would they vote for? Should there be a Palm Beach presidential debate? Three debates?
Friendly critics of the American system have got into the act. London's Daily Mirror informs its readers that America is "a laughingstock." An editorial in the London Times says that we are "a parody of democracy"; an op-ed writer in the same paper says that we "have given hope to dictatorships everywhere." That sober critic of the American ways thinks it's much better to do elections the way the Brits do. In 1945 this meant dismissing Churchill in the middle of the Potsdam summit conference with Stalin and Truman and sending in a successor.
The Daily Mirror has a suggestion which the Emergency Committee of Concerned Citizens 2000 would surely endorse: "The simplest thing might be for President Clinton to be asked to stay on for another four years." Right. Another possibility would be to send Clinton to the UK and let him govern there for four years. Would anybody notice the difference?
Just remember: Procedure is everything. Due process. That is all we need to know. If Bush won by 327 votes, that is enduringly significant.