www.nytimes.com/2000/12/02/opinion/02JLEW.html
December 2, 2000
NOW WE KNOW THAT NOT ALL VOTES COUNT
By JOHN LEWIS
ATLANTA -- The United States exists today
because our forefathers fought and died for the
right to vote. One hundred years later, women
took to the streets to win it. And two
generations ago, hundreds of thousands of
Americans risked their lives fighting to ensure
that blacks had this right.
The history of the vote in America is a history
of conflict, of struggling for the principle of
one person, one vote.
Friends of mine died for this principle. I was
beaten and jailed because I stood up for it. For
millions like me, the struggle for the right to
vote is not mere history; it is experience.
For nearly 100 years, Southern whites used not
only economic retaliation, intimidation and even
murder to deny blacks the right to vote, but also
more subtle, but no less effective, means: poll
taxes, literacy tests and other Jim Crow laws.
A Harvard-educated black man failed his literacy
test. Another black man was denied the right to
vote when he could not answer the question, "How
many bubbles are in a bar of soap?"
It is in the light of this experience that I --
and millions of others -- watch Florida's
struggle to name the winner of this year's
presidential election.
I do not believe that, heading into the election,
there was a concerted effort to deny Americans
the right to vote. We are human and make
mistakes. We design ballots that confuse voters.
Polling equipment breaks down. Polls may not open
as scheduled because workers did not show up on
time. These irregularities were not limited to
Florida; I experienced some of them at my polling
place in Atlanta.
However, regardless of the intent, these
irregularities had the effect of denying people
the right to vote. Our Constitution does not
reserve this right to Americans who can decipher
a confusing ballot. A great nation should not
deny the right because a tiny piece of paper
stubbornly clings to a ballot. We dishonor the
sacrifice of those who fought for this right when
we spend countless hours trying to keep a ballot,
a vote, a voice, from being heard.
Immediately after the elections, analysts told us
that this experience would teach us that every
vote counts. I fear that the current vote
counting teaches us the opposite.
If you were confused by a butterfly ballot, your
vote does not count. If the military neglected to
postmark your absentee ballot, your vote does not
count. If your ballot has a dimpled, hanging or
pregnant chad, your vote does not count. Unless
there are drastic changes in the way votes are
being tallied, these are the lessons we will
learn in Florida.
The makers of the ballot machines have told us
that the most accurate way to count the ballots
is by hand. So, count them by hand we must, even
if it means recounting all six million ballots
cast in Florida.
We must not allow shrill and frantic voices to
drown out the will of the American people. There
can be no legitimacy in an election absent the
principle of one person, one vote. In an election
this close, every vote must count, and every vote
must be counted.
-------
John Lewis, a Democratic member of the House of
Representatives from Georgia, is the author of
"Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the
Movement."
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