Recounting the Michigan Way: A model for Florida
By Henry Payne and Diane Katz
December 19, 2000
©2000 National Review Online

With Florida's electoral system a national laughingstock, Gov. Jeb Bush last week appointed a task force to recommend ballot reforms. Floridians would do well to study another swing state, Michigan, where well-crafted law - and honorable candidates - averted a recount fiasco.

Like the virtual tie in the presidential election, Michigan's 8th congressional race ended as one of the closest in state history. Republican Mike Rogers led Democrat Diane Byrum by a mere 160 votes. Byrum, naturally, demanded a recount. Yet, despite the high stakes for a U.S. House where the Republican margin is razor thin, there were no bitter exchanges between the two campaigns, no accusations that the secretary of state was a partisan "hack" wearing too much mascara, no activists organizing raucous rallies for justice.

"In contrast to recent events in Florida," Byrum's spokesman Adam Wright said, "all parties involved have worked together in an amicable manner."

The difference here has much to do with Michigan's precise election laws - no pregnant or dimpled chads allowed; and thus the confidence both parties have in the recount process. But the candidates, too, displayed none of the ruthless, scorched-earth tactics that Al Gore and his White House mentor have made their political trademark. Above all else, this Michigan contest shows that everybody doesn't do it - that the bloody politics of the Clinton/Gore gang is not the rule in American campaigns. Theirs is not how the game must be played...their proclaimed devotion to "fairness" notwithstanding.

In contrast to Florida's fuzzy rules, Michigan has statutory recount standards less prone to manipulation.

"When you have a vacuum, it allows all the talking heads and lawyers to carry on and travesties to occur," said Chris Thomas, Michigan's director of elections.

To be counted as a legal ballot, for example, only chads "hanging" at two points or less are allowed. And ballots to be recounted are protected by paper "sleeves." Instead of ballot counters holding ballots to the light in search of voter intent, each contested ballot is placed against a color-coded mask. If the color red shows through the punch hole, it is counted as a Republican vote; if blue is visible, it is added to the Democratic tally.

The county canvassing boards that oversee the recount are bipartisan...two Republicans and two Democrats appointed by the county commission. Any disputes unresolved by this board are mediated by the secretary of state, Republican Candice Miller.

But despite Miller's role as final arbiter in this process, she was not smeared as "Cruella deVille" or as "acting in the finest tradition of a Soviet commissar" - as Gore partisans described Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris.

Sylvia Warner, a spokeswoman for Rogers and a 25-year veteran of Michigan elections, credits the precision of Michigan law for sparing state voters a Florida-type fiasco. "Michigan law is so clear," she says, "that I have never seen a recount overturn an election."

But it also makes a difference, she said, that both Rogers and Byrum actually abide by the rules. Asked why Rogers didn't play judicial hardball and challenge Byrum's recount request, Warner was puzzled. "What would be the purpose in that?" she asked. This is precisely the unwritten code of conduct that Gore laid to waste in the Sunshine State.

Byrum also respects the law, unlike her party leader. "Diane wants to bring it to a conclusion," said spokesman Adam Wright as the recount began. "The recount is the recount. That's it." There was no talk of setting up a "war room" to wage a recount campaign. Truckloads of lawyers did not descend on the 8th district to take depositions for multiple lawsuits. Asked why Byrum supporters didn't encourage partisan rallies to influence the process - a la Jesse Jackson - Wright laughs. "We don't see any benefit in trying to color this up for TV."

But hasn't eight years of Clinton/Gore proved that politics is war? That the ends justify the means? In a House so closely split, shouldn't Byrum exhaust every option to capture the seat? Shouldn't she sue to recover the measly 88 votes that separate her and her opponent?

"No," said Wright. "It was a long campaign. (Byrum) feels that for human reasons it's important that Michigan voters know what's next. It's natural to want it over."
Imagine Al Gore, after the first Florida recount, striding to the microphone and citing "human reasons" as a reason for conceding.

Perhaps it is unfortunate that the presidential race was decided under Florida's electoral rules rather than those of Michigan. Then again, the Democratic party should ask itself whether Al Gore would have behaved as honorably as Diane Byrum.