I interviewed Jay
Beskin, the Deputy Mayor of Aventura, a city in Miami/Dade county in Florida,
one of the counties where Democratic candidate
Al Gore asked for a hand recount of all of the ballots after the controversial
2000 presidential election.
Question: What type of
ballots did you have? Were they the controversial butterfly ballots?
Jay Beskin said that the
ballots that were used in Miami/Dade County were not as controversial as the
butterfly ballots. Butterfly ballots had the names of candidates on both sides
of the ballot, and people had to punch a hole in a particular spot in
the middle. This type of ballot was used
in Palm Beach County and was confusing to some voters. As a result, many people
voted for Pat Buchanan
instead of Gore. The ballots
in Miami/Dade were punch card ballots like most ballots in Florida. All the
names were on one side, and the punching spot wasn’t confusing. Some votes
could have been mistakes because some people didn’t push down hard enough for
the hole to come out completely. Also, some of the machines that had
malfunctioned in tests before the election were still used. Some machines did
not count votes when their punch trays were full. These machines might have been
used in Miami/Dade County.
Question: If there wasn’t
a lot of controversy specifically about Miami/Dade county, why did we keep on
hearing about it on the news?
Deputy Mayor Beskin
explained that Gore had asked for hand recounts in that county because it was
one of the most Democratic counties in the state and could have given him a
better net gain.
Question: Were there any
other controversies in Miami/Dade County?
According to Beskin, hand recounts
actually started in Miami/Dade but were stopped. This was mainly because there
wasn’t enough time to do the job before the deadline. There also is a
possibility that there was something else going on involving the mayor of Miami/
Dade County, Alex Penales, who is a Democrat but was not a Gore supporter. He
might have pressured the recounters to stop because of a deal he made with the
Republicans to help his political career. The Republicans might have said they
would let him run for another term even though he had gone through the maximum
number of terms for which he could serve. They also might have said that they
would give him a congressional seat. Also, there were Bush supporters in the
area where the recounts were going on who were physi
Question: What were the reactions
of people in your city to the election?
Since Aventura is 70%
Democratic, Beskin feels that the citizens were very disappointed and angry
about the election. Beskin feels that the mayor of Miami/Dade lost his reputation
because of his actions and is “dead meat” politically in Aventura. Some of
Beskin’s friends who were recounters were very angry and said that there was
physical intimidation to stop the recount. If Miami/Dade were recounted, the
result would have helped Gore but not changed the result of the election. If all
three of the counties Gore requested were recounted, the result would have
probably been a victory for Gore.
Question: Were there
controversies about what counted as a vote and what didn’t in Miami/Dade?
Beskin didn’t think it was
a big issue in Miami/Dade, but in other counties it was an issue. Broward, a
county which had a hand recount, counted dimples, which are ballots where there
is an indent. Palm Beach County didn’t count any dimples. The hole had to be
separated in two or three corners.
Question: Should there have
been a re-vote in Miami/Dade County, as Gore requested, or anywhere else?
Beskin didn’t think so
because he believes a vote should give an assessment of what people think on
November 7, not after that date.
Question: Will your county
change its ballot?
According to the chairwoman
of Miami/Dade county, they may get a new type of ballot but they need state or
federal funds to make this happen. He thinks they should have an optical
scanning system, which will ask voters whether they voted for the candidate they
wanted to.