loyd.net

I hate politics.  So it's not surprising that I'm sick and tired of all the election year campaigning and discussion and arguing.  I voted early. At this point there's nothing else I can do about the results.  Tonight I plan to go home, maybe watch some sci-fi off the TiVo, go to bed early, and wait and check the news in the morning.  I don't think my nerves can take watching the returns.  I just hope it's really over in the morning, unlike that fateful election eight years ago.  Ah, the memories of temporarily residing in the center of the universe...

The irony was that while the confusion was down there in Palm Beach, world attention turned to Tallahassee, in Leon County, where we have a superb Supervisor of Elections and rather smooth elections.  As state capital, the legal arguments and state officials were all here.  A truck transported the chad-ridden ballots from Palm Beach to Tallahassee.  I recall satellite trucks from around the country surrounding the Capitol.  (A friend's son is a professional photographer and snapped a classic photo of the scene.)  I recall driving over the thick communications cables which ran across the street between the Capitol and the state Supreme Court.

I recall going to the downtown Winter Festival, where you could watch a traditional parade, or you could watch the parade of suits.  Even though it was a Saturday night, legal proceedings were occurring in the Leon Country Courthouse.  I peered through the windows and watched the gaggle of reporters who surrounded the lawyers as they exited the courtroom.  I saw David Boies, who had recently gained fame for winning against Microsoft in the anti-trust lawsuit.  I saw Ted Olson, whom I had not heard of before, but who went on to become Solicitor General.

I recall listening to coverage on the radio and simultaneously driving past the Capitol while Katherine Harris was making her announcement that, after all was said and done, Bush had won Florida.  I recall my friends in Texas and my relatives in Europe saying they had heard Tallahassee mentioned on the news (they also teased me for living in Florida).  I recall jokes about hanging chad, dimpled chad, three-cornered chad, and pregnant chad. I recall learning that “chad” is both singular and plural and that I had dealt with chad for years working with computer printouts. I recall learning about St. Chad of Lichfield.  While I hate politics, I'm fascinated with constitutional law, and I followed the proceedings, listening to coverage of both Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts on the radio and reading the opinions on the Web.

Because Tallahassee is a college town, it usually gets very quiet after the fall semester is over and before the spring semester starts in January. The calm of the 2000/2001 holiday season was more pronounced since it followed upon the frenzy of the election controversy.  That inspired me to write a facetious Christmas carol, O Little Tallahassee Town, celebrating the peace and quiet.

Of course, just because the reporters left Tallahassee didn't mean it was over yet—we had to wait for the Electoral College to do its thing.  So I recall in January, while on retreat at a monastery in Texas, trying to avoid the news but being drawn to the morning newspaper, reading about "faithless electors."

It was fascinating, it was even fun, but please oh please oh please, let the 2008 election be over tomorrow!