I am no fan of the Bushes (I can't stand Gore either, for that
matter), but I agree, Brad, your answer is "oversimplified."  As each
county runs (and funds) its own elections here in Florida, and as most counties
are "run" by Democrats, and as Jeb has only been governor here since
January 1999, he really cannot be blamed for the fiasco of the
ballots.  (And our governor, for the 8 years before Jeb, was a
Democrat, Lawton Chiles.)
   I suspect that if one looks into these matters one would find that very few
politicians, Democrat or Republican, have wanted to spend funds on upgrading the
voting and vote-counting technologies when that money could instead
be spent on any number of other more popular projects.  Of course, now
perhaps Florida and other states will see the strong need to improve
the election process and spend the necessary funds for upgrading.

                                 Robert Emerson
                                 Professor of Business Law
                                 University of Florida