The ghost of elections past

Upon reading the Nov. 29 IDS story "County Republicans file for vote recount in three races," a reasonable person might have laughed it off as a joke. But sure enough, just before the recount deadline, the Monroe County Republican Party paid the $11,000 needed to demand a recount of three races. The races, which were chosen to be a "random sampling" of government levels, are county recorder, District 2 county council and the ever-controversial race of Van Buren township assessor. All were chosen randomly to show the "voter fraud" that Republicans mean to seek out could have happened at any level.\nBut the Nov. 7 midterm election results are old news. Why recount the ballots now? We say this tastes strongly of bitterness. \nThe midterm elections, controversial as they might have been, are thankfully long over. Whoever would want to revisit the mudslinging corpses of elections past with even the slightest intent to reclaim additional votes, or throw out those deemed (only after the fact) illegitimate, should be labeled one sore loser. Claiming that changing the outcome of the election would only be an added "bonus," Monroe County Republican Party Chairman Franklin Andrew says the actual intent of the recount is to determine whether "everyone that cast a ballot in this last election is actually eligible to vote in Monroe County." The evidence they are looking for lies in absentee ballots and voter-registration forms. Yikes! Anyone who remembers a certain situation in Florida a few years back can tell you that this process could get really messy, really fast (dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads not included). \nAll this mess over what? The main discrepancy is whether some voters who registered before the system was updated were actually able to register without having to verify their location. If there are actual problems -- such as overseas voters using addresses where houses no longer exist, or voters not having their addresses verified through the registration process -- then it sounds like the $11,000 could be better spent working on fixing these problems for future elections. It should not be spent in a process that, to the general public, looks like a drawn-out partisan hissy fit because the other party won and didn't play fair.\nYes, the Democrats won. The Republicans, however, are already amid an ongoing investigation into a Democratic Party member regarding her unsupervised access to a computerized database. It's a case the FBI has already investigated and found to include no criminal intent, according to the Democratic Party.\nEnough already. It is way past time to give partisan malice over the midterm elections a rest. Why dwell on this election when there is already another one on the horizon -- one sure to bring even more of the fun-filled partisan squabbles that the public loves to see?\nMonroe County Republicans, it is time to give it a rest! Save your energy and money to produce better future election results, not pick apart the losses of elections past.