Always in fast forward, Americans chafe at slow motion political process

The American electoral and political process is elaborate, but the results are almost always instantaneous within hours, even minutes, afterpolls close. The longest Americans had to wait in modern times was in 1960, when Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard Nixon; the result was confirmed onlyat 11 a.m. the morning after Election Day.

More recently, Americans know the result even before the last vote is cast like in 1976 when Jimmy Carter conceded defeat when people were still voting in California in teh evening or in 1996, when Bob Dole8217;s camp threw in the towel even before Election Day.

The ten-week time lag between Election Day First Tuesday after the First Monday of November to the meeting of Electors to formally elect the President December 18 to Inauguration Day January 20 is a relic from an era when it took President John Adams 17 days to get to the White House from Boston in 1800 because of bad roads.

In fact, in those days of coach and horseback travel, Inauguration Day was on Mar 4, some four months after Election Day. That was shortened to ten weeks in 1934 with the introduction of railroads.

Now Americans want to know the results yesterday, although technically the results are official only after a formal counting on January 6th of the ballots cast by electors on December 18th.

Through this lengthy transition period, the United States continues to have a legitimately elected President who demits office only on January 20. Inthis case, President Clinton continues to carry on with his duties including meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the White House yesterday to discuss the West Asian crisis.

So, for that matter, does the vice-president. Al Gore returned to Washington DC yesterday from his campaign headquarters in Nashville to resume his day job as Veep.

But Americans could not be bothered with such niceties. Television and newspapers are full of shrill commentary about how the whole process is beingdelayed, derailed, disrupted etc though there is plenty of time for the due electoral process itself to be played out. There is nothing in the statutes or the constitution suggesting that the President has to be declared the evening or the day after election.

The Bush camp itself seems eager to charge into the White House and begin changing the draperies and re-arrange furniture.

That may have to wait at least pending the arrival of the last absentee ballot, the deadline for which is November 17. And already another round of frenzied speculation has erupted on what surprises it could contain.

The number of absentee ballots could be anywhere from 2300 to 7000, no one quite seems to know. For that matter, there is no indication of how many havealready arrived and been counted.

Some quarters also challenge the supposition that these absentee ballots are weighed towards Republicans. In 1996, Bob Dole did get 53 per cent ofthe absentee vote, but Dole was a war hero. George W.Bush isn8217;t.

In fact, he ducked serving in Vietnam while Al Gore did. Besides, a significant portion of the armed forces personnel who constitute most of the absentee vote are African Americans tend to vote Democratic.

And to cap it all, about 1000 of those votes could come from absentees in Israel Florida Jews who support the Gore-ieberman ticket.

Ergo, the absentee vote can overturn Bushs 325-vote advantage. Back to the old American saying: It ain8217;t over till the fat lady sings.