Shmuel Rosner Writes at the NYT: The New York Times concluded that Bush would have won even without the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the recount. But the 2,600 extra ballots that went to Patrick Buchanan in Palm Beach — extra relative to what he won in other districts — may have made a difference in that tight race. You can’t reliably tally the number of elderly Jewish voters who mistakenly voted for Buchanan — not a likely deliberate choice for most of them — or Bush or who somehow failed to vote for the candidate they wanted to see win: Gore.
This year Florida’s Jews will be better prepared. The mechanics of voting have been simplified since 2000, and with all the hoopla around that debacle, it’s hard to imagine there could be another one. So if they fail to vote for the candidate everybody expects them to vote for — Barack Obama — a reason other than technical difficulties will have to be found: his contentious relations with the Israeli government or, more likely, his economic policies.
