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Original Message -----
> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:16:41 -0800
> Subject: Bowing Out Gracefully
> To: "Nightline Mailing List" <[log in to unmask]>
> From: Nightline <[log in to unmask]>
> Message-Id:
<[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> Picture a country where the ballot is the same all over the country. No
> butterfly ballots. A country where no election returns can be broadcast
> while the polls are open. Where all the ballots are counted by hand every
> time. A colleague from Canada told me this morning that that is the way
> things work north of here. Canada is holding their next election next
> Monday. I'm sure they will have their final results long before we do.
>
> There are a lot of people all over the world having a great deal of fun
at
> our expense over this election. Russian Prime Minister Putin is said to
> have offered to send a team of observers. The U.S. has sent election
> observers all over the world in an effort to monitor the elections in
> other countries. This is not always met with open arms. Now those
> countries can point to our own situation with some satisfaction. Headline
> writers and cartoonists all over the world are having a great time with
> all of this.
>
> Meanwhile, we sit here waiting for some sign that a decision from the
> Florida Supreme Court is imminent. There was a bit of a flurry this
> morning when we got word that the spokesman for the court was coming out.
> There is a fairly elaborate system set up to give us enough warning time
> before a decision is announced so that everyone can go on the air. It
> turned out he was coming out to say that all the rumors that a decision
> had been reached already were not true. So we wait some more.
>
> If there is not a decision today, our plan is to gather a number of
> correspondents from other countries and ask them how they are reporting
on
> all of this. How do they explain to their home countries what is going
on?
> Do they understand what is going on? We'll also have a piece from Dave
> Marash outlining the problems with elections all over the country, not
> just in Florida. One thing is clear from this election. Hundreds, if not
> thousands of ballots in elections all over the country are routinely
> discarded, disqualified, ignored, never counted…all for a variety of
> reasons. But we clearly have problems with our elections. It's just that
> when the outcome isn't that close, no one really pays much attention. If
> the margin of victory in a given county is greater than the number of
> absentee ballots, those ballots are, in many cases, never counted. And by
> now, we're all aware of the problems with the voting machines themselves.
>
> And we're going to try one other thing. At some point, this election will
> be over. There will be a winner and a loser. Each of them will have to
> come out to make what may be the most important speech either of them has
> ever given. The winner will have to find a way to unite the country. If
> Gov. George W. Bush wins, he will have to acknowledge the fact that he
> lost the popular vote, but will still become president. If Vice President
> Al Gore wins, he will have to find a way to convince the Republicans that
> he didn't somehow take the election away from their candidate. And the
> pressure will be on the loser as well. Whoever loses, if they want to
have
> a political future, they will have to be gracious and yet still find a
way
> to position themselves for 2004. So our plan is to turn to two former
> presidential speechwriters and ask them to write the victory speech for
> each candidate, to give us those crucial phrases that might heal this
> divide.
>
> Unless of course, the spokesman for the court comes out and says they
have
> reached their decision. If that happens, there will be lots of yelling,
> running around, chaos. And that will just be here in the "Nightline"
> office. If that happens, all bets are off and we will report the events
of
> the day as they occur. If the decision doesn't come today, then we'll go
> ahead with our plan for tonight, and then come back in tomorrow to start
> waiting again. It's got to end sometime...doesn't it?
>
> Tuesday, November 21, 2000
>
> Leroy Sievers
> Executive Producer
> "Nightline" Office
> Washington, D.C.
>
> ---
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