Gore won in 2000...

[machiavellean]

Recommendation: Read Florida's election statutes (as they existed in November 2000) before coming to any conclusions about the Florida vote in 2000.

I've seen no media recounts that showed Gore-Lieberman receiving more of the legal votes cast in Florida than Bush-Cheney -- and only legal votes count. Speculation about overvotes and undervotes -- neither is a legal vote -- is just that: speculation.

It's obvious enough that voters in Palm Beach County mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan -- and that had they not done so Al Gore would now be President. My speculation has long been that those mistaken votes were cast incorrectly because some precinct worker told voters to "Mark the second box on the ballot" without first examining the "butterfly ballot" used in Palm Beach County. That ballot (designed by Democrats) met the legal requirements of the Florida Statutes, but it was not what one would have been expecting.

Look before your leap? You betcha'. And look before you mark your ballot, too.