DAN’S PAPERS
danshamptons.com
November 9, 2012 Page 25
From the Archives: Dan’s Papers, November 2000 By dan Rattiner
A
s this is being written, the election officials in the County of Palm Beach, Florida are looking at each and every ballot, holding it up to the light to see if they can determine which punch hole the citizen intended to punch out. Some of the holes are cleanly punched, and so the intention is clear, while others have bits of paper from the punch out still attached to the holes. The officials have decided that if these bits of paper, called chads, are hanging, which means they are barely still attached then the vote counts, if they are swinging like doors on a hinge the vote counts, if they are tri-chads which means they are still attached on three sides but not on a fourth, they count, and if they are just swollen out but still attached on all four sides—they are called pregnant chads—then they do not count. The officials have declared their policy to be the “Sunshine Rule.” If you can see daylight when you hold it up to the light, then the citizen gets to have his vote counted. *** Some of the write-in votes have gone astray. Brian and Helle Kain, looking in their mailbox in Odense, Denmark, found an envelope, which contained some information about navigation charts available to purchase by mail. Brian had sent away for them. Also in the envelope, though were two filled out write-in ballots for the Presidential election from the Town of Bellevue, in the State of Washington. They were marked OFFICIAL BALLOT. DO NOT DELAY. The Kains sent the ballots to the American Embassy in Copenhagen by next day mail, which sent them off to the State of Washington in the embassy pouch. Both write-ins were for George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, three sacks of them, and were supposed to have been sent of filled out write-in envelopes from stateside, but were forgotten in the mission to three different American Navy ships, help the USS Cole. have been found, The three sacks were six days after rushed to a nearby the election—in The officials have declared their airport and put on a the mail rooms aboard policy to be the “Sunshine Rule.” cargo plane bound the USS Duluth, the for the States where USS Anchorage and If you can see daylight...then the they were handed the USS Tarawa. vote is counted. over to the United These ships, part of States Postal Service our fleet, had been for distribution by dispatched to Yemen to assist the USS Cole, regular mail. This was on Monday. Whether which had been disabled by a terrorists bomb those going to the pivotal state of Florida get two weeks ago. there before the Friday deadline for write-ins The votes are from sailors on board, 3,000 is unknown.
Presents
AVENUE Jewelr y Show An Exclusive Selection from 10 leading Jewelers
The wife of what movie star rallied the townspeople of Sag Harbor to prevent the owner of the town movie theatre from removing the giant neon SAG HARBOR sign one year?
STILL ST TILL IN THE HAMPTONS by Dan Rattiner
Available at bookstores everywhere on July 15.
danshamptons.com your guide to the Hamptons and the East End
Hôtel Plaza Athénée
Le Trianon Suite (2nd Floor) 37 East 64th Street, off Madison Avenue
Saturday, November 10 + Sunday, November 11, 2012 Please join us, admission is free For more information, call 646.442.1627 or visit www.avenueshows.com. 20505